Queen Elizabeth II calls U.N. a ‘force for common good’

Queen Elizabeth II, making her first speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 53 years, praised the foreign dignitaries for converting the United Nations from a "high-minded aspiration" in 1945 into "a real force for common good." But she prodded its membership to make progress in the fight against poverty and to take "careful account" ...

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Queen Elizabeth II, making her first speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 53 years, praised the foreign dignitaries for converting the United Nations from a "high-minded aspiration" in 1945 into "a real force for common good." But she prodded its membership to make progress in the fight against poverty and to take "careful account" of the "risks facing smaller, more vulnerable nations" from global warming.

Queen Elizabeth II, making her first speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 53 years, praised the foreign dignitaries for converting the United Nations from a "high-minded aspiration" in 1945 into "a real force for common good." But she prodded its membership to make progress in the fight against poverty and to take "careful account" of the "risks facing smaller, more vulnerable nations" from global warming.

Her address to the 192-nation assembly represented something of a valedictory speech for one of the world’s longest-serving heads of state, an 84-year-old monarch whose life has paralleled the history of the United Nations. It also provided a rare opportunity for her to weigh in on a contemporary political issue championed by Britain: the rising temperatures brought on by climate change.

Read the rest of my story at the Washington Post.

Follow me on Twitter @columlynch

Colum Lynch was a staff writer at Foreign Policy between 2010 and 2022. Twitter: @columlynch

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