ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND, 6 – 9 JUNE
Secretary-General Kofi Annan left Moscow on Thursday morning, 6 June, and flew to Geneva, arriving at midday.
In the afternoon, he met privately with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers.
He was later joined by his wife Nane, who accompanied him in the evening to an awards dinner, where he was given the title of Bourgeois d’honneur de Genève by the President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Micheline Calmy-Rey.
In presenting the honour, the President of the State Council said that the Secretary-General had become a symbol of unflinching dignity which had considerably strengthened the credibility of the United Nations. “For the quality of your work in the service of peace and justice in the world”, she said, “Geneva offers you its highest esteem and its profound gratitude.” The Secretary-General responded by professing a deep attachment to the city of Geneva, that began when he was a student there in the early 1960s. He acknowledged that Geneva was actually honouring, through him, the United Nations and its global mission.
On Friday morning, the Secretary-General was awarded an honorary doctorate by Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies, where he had studied economics in 1961 and 1962.
The leaders of tomorrow, he said in French in accepting the degree, face a complex world "much different from what it was when I was a student here". This presents universities with an enormous challenge, he said, for they must prepare their students to confront a world not yet defined, a world changing, amorphous, interdependent. (See Press Release SG/SM/8263.)
In introducing the Secretary-General, Institute Director Peter Tschopp said he had looked into Kofi Annan's file at the school where he found a marginal note written by the Director at the time which said "C'est un garçon qui a un grand potentiel." (This young man has great potential.) The Director's instincts were on target, Mr. Tschopp commented.
That afternoon, the Secretary-General met with his Special Envoy for Myanmar, Ismail Razali. He then saw Adolf Ogi, his Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace. Mr. Ogi briefed on his efforts to facilitate a contribution from FIFA to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help install three large-screen TV monitors at public venues in Kabul, so that Afghanis could follow the World Cup. According to Mr. Ogi, these would be set up by Sunday, 9 June.
He then went to the Villa Barton, on the edge of Lake Leman, where he met privately with Switzerland's Foreign Minister, Joseph Deiss.
He then delivered the keynote address at the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, which also took place at Villa Barton.
Globalization has transformed the context in which the United Nations works, he said. In 1945, it was assumed that any threat to world order would come from aggression by one sovereign State against another. "What keeps people awake at night" now, he said, is "the fear of what might be done by a handful of fanatics -- perhaps armed only with box-cutters, like those who attacked the United States last September."
Still, in spite or even because of globalization fears, he argued, "the sovereign State remains a highly relevant and necessary institution, indeed the very lynchpin of human security". The rule of law, he said, enforced by a strong and effective State, can be the key to calm and prosperity.
Yet even the best-organized States are not finding globalization easy to manage, he went on. The security challenges are economic, physical, environmental and psychological in nature and can make even a strong State look weak. For example, population movements bring people from different cultural backgrounds into formerly stable communities, prompting questions about how inclusive a nation should be, and what its identity should be based on.
States need robust policies, he asserted, but must not be coercive. They must tap new sources of legitimacy and strength by broadening their base of support.
What's needed, he concluded, is a kind of ladder of institutions that allows people to link up with each other in an emerging world community, starting at the village level and culminating in the United Nations itself. (See Press Release SG/SM/8264.)
The Secretary-General had been introduced by Georges Abi Saab, who had been a student with him at the Institute 40 years ago and who recalled that Kofi Annan wore a Lumumba beard then, in the style of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. It was “a badge of African progressive internationalism”, he observed. “Most of my African friends have shaved that beard”, he said, “but Kofi left it and made it a sign of distinction.”
Mr. Abi Saab said that the Secretary-General showed fidelity to friends, institutions and principles. The story of the Lumumba beard, he said, “shows that he can be faithful to principles and convictions, but at the same time adhere to and defend as staunchly the interests and values of the larger community”.
The Secretary-General then paid a courtesy call on Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, who was visiting Geneva.
On Friday evening, Mr. Annan was guest of honour at a dinner on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Graduate Institute.
The Secretary-General departed Geneva for Rome on Sunday, 9 June, after conferring with Japan’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Hisashi Owada.