Prince Harry blasted freedoms
in his new home, the US, Monday in an address to the United Nations in New York
City — as he warned of a “global assault on democracy and freedom.”
The runaway UK royal was
delivering a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly in honor of the late
South African leader Nelson Mandela when he pointed to the US as a cautionary
tale.
“From the horrific war in
Ukraine to the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States,
we are witnessing a global assault on democracy and freedom — the cause of
Mandela’s life,” he said.
“This has been a painful year
in a painful decade,” the Duke of Sussex continued.
“We’re living through a
pandemic that continues to ravage communities in every corner of the
globe; climate change wreaking havoc on our planet, with the most
vulnerable suffering most of all; the few, weaponizing lies and disinformation
at the expense of the many.”
The Duke, 37, also demanded
world leaders seriously address climate change, saying, “the water is rising
all around us — in some places quite literally.”
“The right thing to do is not
up for debate, and neither is the science,” he quipped. “The only question is
whether we will be brave enough and wise enough to do what is necessary.”
Prince Harry made the comments
at the UN’s annual Mandela day, attending the event alongside his wife,
the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, 40.
The couple have been vocal
advocates of Mandela’s legacy, celebrating the anti-apartheid freedom fighter
who rose to become South Africa’s first black president after serving 27 years
in an apartheid-state prison.
Harry called on world leaders
to use Mandela’s legacy as inspiration at “a time of global uncertainty and
division.”
Quoting a letter penned by
Mandela in prison, the Duke said: “To a freedom fighter hope is what a life
belt is to a swimmer — a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.”
“How many of us are in danger of losing those life belts right now?” he then
asked the gathered leaders.
The royal also revealed he
keeps a photo of his late mother, Princess Diana, and Mandela together.
“On my wall, and in my heart
every day, is an image of my mother and Mandela meeting in Cape Town in 1997,”
Harry said.
He remarked on the late
leader’s smile in the photograph.
“Here was a man with the
weight of the world on his shoulders, asked to heal his country from the
wreckage of its past and transform it for the future, a man who had endured the
very worst of humanity, vicious racism and state-sponsored
brutality,” Harry said.
“Yet, in that photo and so
many others, he is still beaming. Still able to see the goodness in humanity.
Still buoyant with a beautiful spirit that lifted everyone around him,” he
added.
