Prince Harry delivered a speech to the United Nations in New York. He showed up for the appointment holding hands with his wife.
Prince Harry (37) and Duchess Meghan (40) appeared holding hands for an important appointment in New York. Harry accepted the invitation of the Nelson Mandela Foundation to address the United Nations on International Nelson Mandela Day, July 18.
Prince Harry said it was an honor to speak today. He has met many family members of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) over the years and therefore speaks with humility to the UN General Assembly. He knows “how much the man they loved means to so many [people]”.
A picture of Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana
Among other things, Harry addressed the legacy of the freedom fighter; whose letters, speeches and the many photographs in which Mandela often had a smile on his face, despite all the injustice that had happened to him. One of these recordings is special for him personally. He speaks of a photo that is not only on his wall, but also in his heart every day. It shows his late mother, Princess Diana (1961-1997), when they met in Cape Town. Archbishop and human rights activist Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) gave him the picture.
In this and the other photos, Mandela, “a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders,” is almost “beaming with joy.” Mandela was still able to see the goodness in humanity: “Not because he was blind to the ugliness and injustices of the world, no. He saw them clearly. He lived through them. But he knew that we would overcome them be able.”
Harry also spoke about the events of the past months and years – climate change, the corona pandemic, the spread of misinformation, the war in Ukraine and also the overturning of the constitutional abortion law in the USA. “We are all witnessing a global attack on democracy and freedom” and therefore on what Mandela stood for.