There is a tradition – an intellectual background (rather than a religious background) – that links SUA to the richness of a heritage of reasoning that stretches over thousands of years, which remains crucially relevant today for addressing problems of global insecurity as well as of global injustice.
Please use your imaginations, passions, and exceptional talents to protect this magnificent, majestic, endangered world; promote peace; create beauty; and develop original ideas that will move humankind forward.
You as educated graduates have an obligation to make sure that we can maintain the open society, with free human rights, with generous access to all cultures, with freedom of thought and liberty, and, the will to make a vibrant civil life possible together.
In this sense, those who have a prime point, a source of consistent renewal and inspiration, are able to remain strong even in the face of the most difficult challenges.
You must do all you can to make the path to equality and justice open and accessible to all. You are the dreamers who can, with strength, patience and passion, change the world. I wish you all a stupendous future spent reaching for the stars.
I hope through expressing what is in my heart I can encourage all of you today to be contributive citizens of society when you leave this palace of learning.
We received the Nobel Peace Prize and I’ve said, from that day forth, ‘The Nobel peace prize is not given for what one has done, but hopefully, for what one will do.’
Human security is based on a people-centered approach to peace and security, based on human rights and the imperative of protecting individuals and communities.
