Family and Love

Ambassador Wu Hailong
Mr. Yuan
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a great pleasure to welcome you this evening to the opening of “Family and Love”, an impressive exhibition celebrating the talents of young Chinese photographers. My most sincere thanks go to the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship, and to his Excellency Ambassador Wu for organizing such a touching photography exhibition for the Palais des Nations. Let me also thank the People’s Republic of China for being one of the most active participants in the UNOG Cultural Activities Programme.

Experiencing the rich Chinese culture and daily life through the eyes of school children is indeed unique. Even more remarkable is that these artwork represent the potential and talent of youth from diverse cities and backgrounds in over 20 Chinese provinces. As China makes up the largest generation of youth in history, their success is crucial to the future of this world.

The next generation is of course of the utmost importance to the initiatives of the United Nations. Every day we work to bring young people to the forefront of global debates. We aim to take the youth development agenda a step further and to advocate for increased investments in, and strengthened commitments to, youth. A very important part of that is inclusive development, for children living with disabilities.

This exhibition is also symbolic as 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family. Moving closer to the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, it is more important than ever that we recognize the centrality of families to the realization of the Goals, and encourage young people to dedicate themselves to being involved in shaping a better world for us all, through international collaboration, development, social progress and humanitarian care.

Once again, I sincerely thank the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship for providing us the opportunity to showcase some photographic impressions of the promising youth of China, and for bringing their youth closer to our youth.

Thank you, and please enjoy the exhibition.