Activities of Secretary-General in Chile, 26 February-1 March
On Thursday, 26 February, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accompanied by Madam Ban Soon-taek, flew from Asunción, Paraguay, to Santiago de Chile, to attend a high-level event on “Women in Power and Decision-Making”, organized by the Government of Chile in cooperation with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).
Before the opening ceremony of the event, on Friday, 27 February, the Secretary-General met with President Michelle Bachelet Jeria of Chile. They exchanged views about the importance of gender equality in the framework of the post-2015 development agenda.
In his keynote address, the Secretary-General said that progress in achieving gender equality was too slow and uneven and that words were not enough. He called for increased investments in gender equality to achieve a truly transformative new agenda for sustainable development. (See Press Release SG/SM/16552.)
He then held a press conference. On the margins of that event, he held bilateral meetings with Vesna Pusić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, and with Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania.
In the afternoon, he met with the staff of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and inaugurated a plaque commemorating the fifth anniversary of the earthquake in Chile.
He also met with Mariela Castro, Director of the Cuban National Center for Education; Mary Robinson, United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change; Isabel Allende, President of Chile’s Senate; and Heraldo Muñoz, Chile’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, before attending a gala dinner hosted by President Bachelet Jeria.
On Saturday, 28 February, the Secretary-General was made “Illustrious citizen of the city of Santiago” by its Mayor, Carolina Tohá, and attended a cultural event with representatives of the migrant communities in Chile.
He then participated in the closing session of the high-level event on “Women in Power and Decision-Making”, signing the call for action for gender equality and stressing in his remarks that this call could not be ignored. (See Press Release SG/SM/16554.)
He also met with the women ministers of the Chilean Government.
After a lunch with the senior United Nations officials and the United Nations country team in Chile, the Secretary-General visited Santiago’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights, where he met with representatives of civil society.
On Sunday, 1 March, the Secretary-General visited the Pablo Neruda Museum in Isla Negra, praising a Chilean hero, a Latin American legend and a global inspiration. He said the poet was not only a Nobel Prize winner but also a great friend of the United Nations.
In the evening, the Secretary-General left Santiago for New York, where he arrived on Monday, 2 March.