ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SPAIN, 6 - 11 APRIL
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Madrid on Thursday morning, 6 April.
Upon arrival he held meetings with United Nations officials in preparation for the start of the meetings, to begin the next day, of the Chief Executives Board (CEB), which, twice a year, brings together the heads of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes.
He also met with Enrique Iglesias, Secretary-General of the Secretariat for the Iberian-American Summits.
The Secretary-General met for an hour in the afternoon with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, who was accompanied by his Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos.
The Prime Minister asserted his support for the United Nations work, and pledged to increase Spain’s voluntary contributions to all United Nations agencies, doubling its contributions to several of them, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Secretary-General thanked him for those contributions and briefed him on the progress being made in reforming the United Nations.
They also discussed developments in Iran, Western Sahara, the Alliance of Civilizations and Spain’s contributions to peacekeeping efforts in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Secretary-General voiced his hope that ETA’s announcement of a permanent ceasefire could lead to an era of peace, and voiced his encouragement at recent developments.
He echoed that point in a joint press encounter that he and Prime Minister Zapatero held afterwards.
The Secretary-General, in his comments to the press, expressed the hope that the ceasefire declared by the group ETA could lead to a permanent peace, adding, “I think this is an opportunity that must be seized”.
The Secretary-General and Mrs. Nane Annan that evening attended a dinner hosted by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia in honour of the United Nations agency heads attending the Chief Executives Board (CEB) meeting to begin the following day.
The following morning, the Secretary-General chaired the first CEB session at the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization in Madrid.
Earlier on Friday, the Secretary-General also met with the staff of the World Tourism Organization, telling them that, although they are a small agency, they accomplish such important tasks as bringing people together and fostering development.
Following the meetings in Madrid, the Secretary-General and the CEB continued their work by holding a retreat in Segovia, where, on Friday night, they had a working dinner hosted by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
The Board also heard from members of the High-Level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment, which had met earlier that week in New York. Among the members present at the retreat were Prime Ministers Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan and Jens Stoltenberg of Norway.
In a separate programme that day, Mrs. Annan met with the Spanish Committee for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), whose patroness is Queen Sofia.
On Saturday, 8 April, the Secretary-General travelled to Seville, where on Monday he accepted the first Seville Node between Cultures Award, conferred by the Sevilla Nodo Foundation to recognize an individual’s contribution to cross-cultural understanding among Christians, Jews and Muslims.
In accepting the award, the Secretary-General warned against the rising extremism and intolerance that has been seen recently, arguing that “there is a danger that the essential dialogue between Muslims, Jews and Christians may be reduced to an angry exchange between the fringes”. (See Press Release SG/SM/10411.)
Clearly, he said, “there is a need to unlearn our collective prejudices” and promote dialogue based on the premise that diversity is a precious gift, not a threat.
He received an award in the shape of a dove, and an additional prize of €30,000, which he said would be directed by the Foundation at his request to the United Nations Population Fund, to support a project combating sexual violence against women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Secretary-General was conferred the award by the Mayor of Seville, Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, who is also the President of the Sevilla Nodo Foundation, and by the President of the Autonomous Government of Andalucía, Manuel Chaves.
Prior to receiving the award, he met separately with both men, and discussed with them the work of the Foundation, which seeks to foster understanding among Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Upon receiving the award, he thanked the people of Seville, and pointed to a dove-shaped pin in his lapel, which matched the dove-shaped award. “I came here with one dove, but I am leaving with two,” the Secretary-General noted.
Later that day, the Secretary-General and Nane Annan observed a procession taking place in Seville that marked the start of the observance of Santa Semana, the Christian Holy Week.
The Secretary-General and his party departed Spain for the Netherlands on Tuesday morning, 11 April.