SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS ART WORK GIFT FROM CANADA MARKING INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF VOLUNTEERS

SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS ART WORK GIFT FROM CANADA

MARKING INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF VOLUNTEERS

This is the text of remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan today, in the presence of Alfonso Gagliano, Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services, and D. Felipe de Borbón, Prince of Asturias, at a ceremony to receive a gift from Canada to commemorate the International Year of Volunteers:

Thank you, Mr. Minister, your Royal Highness.  I want to express my deep appreciation to the Government and the people of Canada for this generous gift.

Even before this, Canada had shown exemplary commitment to the International Year of Volunteers.  As you said, you even minted a 10-cent coin commemorating it -- the only country in the world to take such a step.

Now you have given the United Nations a beautiful art work, which we see in replica here today.  This gift, which will reside permanently at UN Volunteer Headquarters in Bonn, will remind everyone of Canada's enthusiastic support of the International Year of Volunteers, and indeed of the United Nations as a whole.

Let me congratulate the artist, Anthony Testa, of the Royal Canadian Mint, who has really captured the spirit of volunteering.  This sculpture is full of dynamism and energy, just like the millions of volunteers who serve tirelessly around the world to help those in need.  Many of them are Canadians, and they are a shining example of their country's sense of global solidarity.

Dear friends, the International Year is over, but the commitment of volunteers goes on.  In these troubled times, I hope that many more men and women will share their skills and their talents with the world -- just as the Ground Zero volunteers who are with us today have been doing for almost three months.

Together, we really can make a better world.

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