UN Foundation Congratulates President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris on Historic Election Victory

In response to the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the U.S. Presidential election, United Nations Foundation President and CEO Elizabeth Cousens issued the following statement:

“The United Nations Foundation congratulates President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their historic victory. In this election more Americans cast votes than in any election in a century, and Vice President-elect Harris becomes the first woman and person of color to hold this title in our country’s history.

“President-elect Biden has been a long-time ally of the United Nations, a believer in the UN’s mission and its value to the American people, demonstrated during his time as Vice President and as a former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He understands the indispensability of global cooperation, believes in working with allies, and, as a candidate, has insisted that the United States be at the table at the United Nations to address our most urgent challenges from COVID-19 to climate change.

“Much has changed in the four years since Vice President Biden last walked the White House grounds. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused human suffering on a massive scale, across our country and the world. The virus has crushed economies and exacerbated entrenched inequities across societies, including our own. We need urgently to reckon anew with the scourge of systemic racism and discrimination and strive for greater social justice.

“Much needs to be done. There is hard work in the days ahead, and we may well face setbacks. But we now have a historic opportunity as a nation to reset our course – to renew and rebuild at home, and to restore our leadership abroad.

“As a candidate, President-Elect Biden promised to restore U.S. leadership on the world stage. We look forward to the United States rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement; re-engaging with UN organizations such as the UN Relief and Works Agency, UN Population Fund, UNESCO, Human Rights Council, and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and restoring full funding of the United Nations. We also look forward to the United States reenergizing its long bipartisan leadership on global health, including the sexual and reproductive health of women everywhere.

“We look forward to working with the incoming Biden-Harris Administration, as well as U.S. Congressional and civic leaders, as the United States embarks on a new era of global engagement with conviction and character.

“As we look to the future, and the future we seek for our children, we hear President-elect Biden’s call, that it is time for Americans ‘to unite, to heal, to come together as a nation.’ Divided, we will falter, but united we will prevail.”

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About the UN Foundation:

The UN Foundation brings together ideas, people, and resources to help the United Nations drive global progress and tackle urgent problems. Our hallmark is to collaborate for lasting change and innovate to address humanity’s greatest challenges. Learn more at www.unfoundation.org