ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND, 13-19 JULY

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Switzerland on Friday, 13 July 2001.

The following Monday morning he began his official visit to Geneva when he addressed the high-level segment of the 2001 Substantive Session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).  The theme was Africa.

"This could be a turning point in Africa's history," the Secretary-General said, referring to the adoption of a new African recovery plan at a time when African leaders declared their commitment to an African Union at the recently-concluded Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Lusaka, Zambia.

He said that after attending the last three African summits (in Yaoundé, Abuja and Lusaka) his overall impression is that "Africans, including African leaders, are much less disposed to blame all their troubles on outsiders and more determined to take responsibility for their own future."

"If they do, they are surely entitled to the international community's support," he said.

The Secretary-General called for the launching of a new round of trade negotiations aimed at restoring the momentum of open markets and "which this time must be a true Development Round, in the sense that it will give genuine priority to the concerns and interests of developing countries."

"We must make ourselves Africa's advocates," he also said, outlining at least five areas where the United Nations system could mobilize and deliver the crucial support that will be needed, including improving market access, reducing subsidies paid by rich countries to farmers, increasing official development assistance (ODA), prompting the repatriation of illegally acquired wealth and providing deeper and faster debt relief.

He added, "If Africans are taking a cold, hard look at their own record, it is surely appropriate that the United Nations should take a similar look at its own record in Africa."

About the plethora of United Nations African development initiatives, the Secretary-General said, "Unfortunately, few if any have been very effective," and said greater efforts were needed to listen to the people on the ground.

"We must be less eager to devise and promote United Nations initiatives and more constructive in finding ways to support local, African initiatives," he said (see SG/SM/7890).

Before his address, he had a brief press encounter outside the ECOSOC chamber in Geneva's Palais des Nations, during which he congratulated Jacques Rogge who had just been elected to head the International Olympic Committee.

He had several bilateral meetings, including encounters with Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa, Chairman of the Group of 77, Ambassador Bajher Assadi of Iran, and Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab.  The Secretary-General also attended a luncheon hosted by the President of ECOSOC, Martin Belinga-Eboutou of Cameroon.

The Secretary-General later convened a high-level panel on the Youth Employment Network of leaders from private industry, civil society and economic policy aimed at exploring imaginative approaches in creating opportunities for youth.  He did so at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization together with Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General, and James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank.  The network grew out of one of the key initiatives outlined in the United Nations Millennium report designed to address the fact that an estimated 66 million young people are unemployed today, an increase of 10 million since 1995.

He then held a press conference on the Youth Employment Network and took questions on other subjects as well, including his message to the G-8 summit, and the India-Pakistan talks then under way.  He welcomed the talks between India and Pakistan but he said he preferred to wait until he received a full report before commenting conclusively.  And he gave a comprehensive response to a question about his message to the Group of Eight (G-8) summit that he would attend on Friday, which included the battle against AIDS, poverty reduction and climate change (see SG/SM/7892). 

His last official engagement of the day was to participate in the Africa Forum for Investment Promotion, which gathers representatives of the public and private sector, together with development banks, multilateral agencies and ministers attending the ECOSOC session.

On Tuesday, 17 July, the Secretary-General held a series of meetings at the Palais des Nations.  He began his day with a planning meeting for the G-8 Summit at the end of the week in Genoa, Italy.  In conjunction with the Summit, he met with K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, and Andrew Cassels, a Director of the World Health Organization.

He later met with Carlo Lambrecht, President of the Council of State of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

The Secretary-General then discussed global trade issues with Mike Moore, Director-General of the World Trade Organization.  His last meeting of the morning was with Yoshio Utsumi, the head of the International Telecommunications Union, in which they discussed the framework for the World Summit on the Information Society to be held in 2003.

In the afternoon, he visited the headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Upon arrival at the eight-story steel and glass modern building, he was greeted outside the main entrance by High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers.  Hundreds of UNHCR staff members who had gathered in the lobby and lined the balconies on each floor gave the Secretary-General a warm ovation as he made his entrance.

In his first visit to UNHCR since Lubbers became High Commissioner earlier this year, the Secretary-General spoke about the challenges faced by the United Nations main refugee agency, drawing from his own experience at the organization where he once worked, and outlined some of the key issues the United Nations was confronting in today's rapidly changing world, such as globalization, AIDS, reducing poverty and the environment.

The Secretary-General was then introduced to award-winning American film actress Angelina Jolie, star of the current box office success "Tomb Raider," who was at UNHCR headquarters to learn more about humanitarian work on behalf of refugees.

On Wednesday 18 July, the Secretary-General met with his former Special Envoy for the Balkans, Karl Bildt, to discuss developments in that region.

He later met with Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to discuss the proposed new round of trade liberalization talks and the ECOSOC session under way in Geneva.

Following that meeting, the Secretary-General met with Terje Roed-Larsen, his Special Coordinator for the Middle East, who traveled from Madrid to Geneva for consultations with the Secretary-General on the escalating violence in the Middle East.

On Thursday 19 July, the Secretary-General met with Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, before leaving Geneva for Genoa, Italy, where he would address the G-8 Summit on Friday.