GENEVA EMBODIES WHAT UN STANDS FOR -- AN INTERSECTION OF TOLERANCE, PEACE, DEMOCRACY,

SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON ACCEPTING PRIZE OF FONDATION POUR GENÈVE

Following is the text of remarks by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, translated in part from the original French, on accepting the prize of the Fondation pour Genève, in Geneva today:

Let me thank all of you for your kind words, which I am not sure that I deserve, but which I humbly accept.

It’s a great honour for me to receive the 2006 prize of the Fondation pour Genève.

This prize moves me in more ways than one.

First, because I have been profoundly attached to Geneva, ever since I studied here at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in the early 1960s.  It was also in Geneva, at the World Health Organization, that I started my career as an international civil servant.  And it was here that I met my wife, Nane.  In other words, the ties that bind me to your beautiful city are many and strong.  Coming back to Geneva, professionally, as well as privately, is a renewed pleasure every time.  Geneva and Switzerland are in some ways my second homeland.

I am also moved because, through me, you are honouring the United Nations, and its global mission for peace, development and human rights.  I thank you for your unstinting support of the Organization, and the unfailing hospitality that you show to the United Nations main European headquarters.

Let me now continue in English, “the other language”.   Geneva is without contest one of the most international cities of the world.  No other city is home to so many international organizations and institutions -- with the Human Rights Council as the most recent addition to this prestigious circle.  In many ways, Geneva embodies what the United Nations stands for:  an intersection of tolerance, of peace and democracy; a meeting place of languages, religions and cultures, of civil society, the private and the public sectors -- in sum, humankind in all its diversity.

So it makes sense that a few individuals of goodwill should have come together to defend and promote this city, which has placed itself at the service of humanity.  For 30 years, the Fondation has brought together business and public institutions for the common good -- a bit like what the UN tries to do every day within the framework of the Global Compact, which I proposed in Switzerland at the Davos Forum of 1999.  Indeed, it is thanks to partnerships like these, where the two sides listen to one another and create synergies, that we will succeed in making progress towards global peace and prosperity for all.

So I am delighted to be with you tonight, just steps from the Palais des Nations, at La Pastorale -- this symbolic venue shared by four entities dedicated to promoting Geneva’s international identity.

Dear friends of the Fondation, allow me to pay tribute to you and thank you for everything you do to support the goals and principles of our United Nations.

Let me end by paraphrasing a former president of the United States, and say before you all:  Je suis un Genevois!

Long live international Geneva!

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For information media • not an official record