ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL, JACKSON, WYOMING, 6-7 JUNE

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Jackson, Wyoming, in the afternoon of Friday, 6 June, to open the first ever Global Insight Summit.  The Summit was convened by the United Nations and the Jackson Hole Film Institute and held during the fifth annual Jackson Hole Film Festival.

Its purpose was to bring together entertainment leaders and United Nations officials to explore how film and television could be better used to raise public awareness of critical global issues and the United Nations role in addressing them.

In his keynote address to the Summit at the Jackson Hole Community Center for the Arts, the Secretary-General said the United Nations has always worked with Governments to achieve its goals.  And it always would.  But the United Nations also needed new strategic partners and fresh creative thinking, he added.  “Governments can’t succeed alone -- you in civil society have a powerful role as a force for change,” the Secretary-General said.  (See Press Release SG/SM/11622.)

He also noted that the world of entertainment and new media had a unique power to connect the United Nations and people in every corner of the world.  In that regard, he appealed for Summit participants’ support in amplifying the United Nations message.

The following day, on Saturday, 7 June, the Secretary-General attended four small private group meetings with filmmakers, television producers, actors and other members of the entertainment community.  The Secretary-General described the work of the United Nations, and the meetings explored how best to strengthen the partnership between the United Nations and popular media.  The themes of the meetings were Darfur, children and armed conflict, HIV/AIDS and the United Nations work with children in general.

The Secretary-General left Jackson, Wyoming, and arrived back in New York on the evening of Saturday, 7 June.