Todd Heisler/The New York Times Queen Elizabeth II arrives to address members of the United Nations General Assembly. Update, July 7 | Full coverage of the Queen’s visit can be found here.
UNITED NATIONS – Queen Elizabeth II addressed the United Nations for the first time since 1957 on Tuesday, paying homage to the organization’s accomplishments since she last stood at the famous green podium of the General Assembly.
“In my lifetime, the United Nations has moved from being a high-minded aspiration to being a real force for common good,” she told the packed hall.
It was a brief speech (see text), just eight minutes, assuring that the queen’s remarks would not join the annals of infamous harangues
from the podium delivered by long-reigning leaders like Muammar al-Qaddafi, who spoke for more than 90 minutes last fall, or Fidel Castro of Cuba. It was the first of three public visits during the queen’s
daylong stop in New York City.
On her first visit, just four years after she took the throne, the queen came gliding into the United Nations in a black slip dress (or at least it looked black in the rapturous
newsreels about the visit), high heels and a fur wrap. There was definitely no need for the fur wrap in the suffocating July heat on Tuesday — the queen wore a flowered suit and a curvy, elegant hat.
If the monarch, now 84, did not exactly sweep through the hall with the same grace as her 31-year-old self, the United Nations building itself looked rather more tattered, only now undergoing its first renovations since it was built around 1950.
Queen Elizabeth said that the greatest transformation she had witnessed in all her years was in social attitudes, saying that much change was caused by public pressure.
“Many of these sweeping advances have come about not because of governments, committee resolutions or central directives — although all these have played a part — but instead because millions of people around the world wanted them,” she said.
The United Nations, which has 192 members as opposed to the 82 when the queen last spoke, has adapted to these changes, she said. In 1957, there were just three international operations. Now there are 26, she noted, deploying 120,000 men and women around the world. The body faced important new challenges in the form of ills like terrorism and climate change, she said.
“It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all,” said the queen.
The General Assembly hall is usually a sleepy place; it is not unusual for speakers to address row after row of empty seats. But nearly every seat was full for the queen, and it was standing room only in the upstairs galleries.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, introduced the queen with an homage of his own. “In a changing and churning world, you are an anchor for our age,” he said, noting that her reign spans decades — “from the challenges of the cold war to the threat of global warming, from the Beatles to Beckham.”
Queen Elizabeth said that people reviewing her speech 53 years hence would probably have a perspective of a world just as different as the world was when she addressed the General Assembly 53 years ago.
“When people in 53 years from now look back on us, they will doubtless view many of our practices as old-fashioned,” she said. “But it is my hope that, when judged by future generations, our sincerity, our willingness to take a lead and our determination to do the right thing will stand the test of time.”
The audience applauded politely at the end.
“It was short and sweet,” said Alexa Goncalves, a British resident of Long Island who had finagled a ticket from friends. Because the queen was headed to the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a nearby memorial garden for the Britons killed, Ms. Goncalves said she wished the monarch had been a little more forceful on the issue of terrorism. “I thought it would be a little more powerful,” she said. “This would be the forum to get it out to a lot more people.”
The Sudanese ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, not know for his love of Western institutions, was rather more diplomatic, noting that Queen Elizabeth had nearly “a century of wisdom” to share.
“It was nice,” he said. “Not too long.”
Comments are no longer being accepted.