Secretary-General, at Closing of Annual Staff Awards Ceremony, Urges International Community to Uphold Values of United Nations Charter in Daily Work

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the closing of the United Nations Secretary-General Awards ceremony, in New York today:

I wanted to be here earlier.  As you know, I have just returned from an emergency mission to the Middle East and was briefing on my visit.  But, I did not want to miss this important occasion, and the opportunity to extend my warmest congratulations to all winners and finalists, and my thanks to all nominees for their enormous efforts.  Congratulations to all of you.

I would also like to thank all those who made the 2015 Awards possible — the colleagues who contributed to this ceremony and our evaluation team of panels from across the Organization.  In particular, I would like to recognize the United Nations Secretary-General Awards team in Under-Secretary-General [Yukio] Takasu’s office.  They spent many hours coordinating the entire process.  I am also grateful to colleagues in DPI [Department of Public Information] and in OHRM [Office of Human Resources Management] for their highly professional support.

May I invite all who made this year’s award ceremony possible to stand for a round of applause.  Thank you for your efforts.

We cannot close this ceremony without looking ahead.  On this seventieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, I urge you all to keep to the spirit of these Awards as we seek to uphold the values of our Charter in our daily work. And don’t forget to plan for the 2016 Awards.

Good afternoon and good night to all of you at the duty stations who are joining us by video.  Thank you for joining us.