Activities of Secretary-General in Switzerland, 29 February – 1 March
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Geneva from New York early on Monday morning, 29 February.
His first meeting was with Staffan de Mistura, his Special Envoy for Syria. Together, they visited the Syria crisis operations centre at the Palais des Nations.
Later in the morning, the Secretary-General appointed the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding. Speaking to reporters with the co-founder and United Nations Messenger of Peace Maestro Daniel Barenboim, the Secretary-General said that the Orchestra’s every performance is a testimony to the power of music to break down barriers, to promote cultural understanding and to build bridges between communities. He added that Maestro Barenboim and the Orchestra had agreed to perform at the World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey which was due to take place in May.
At the same press event, on Syria, the Secretary-General said that, by and large, the cessation of hostilities was holding in Syria, although with some scattered incidents. He added that the task force meeting in Geneva that day and all other members of the International Support Group for Syria were trying to make sure that the violence did not spread further. The Secretary-General expressed his sincere hope that the cessation of hostilities would continue so as to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered.
Following a working lunch with Zeid Ra-ad al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary-General addressed the opening of the Human Rights Council. In his keynote statement for the high-level panel discussion entitled “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Human Rights”, he said that one of his priorities has been to bring the three pillars of the United Nations together, and to use human rights as a compass.
The Human Rights Up Front initiative aims to achieve this by recognizing the value of identifying rights violations as early warning signs of crises to come, the Secretary-General added. (See Press Release SG/SM/17567.)
Later on Monday, the Secretary-General presided over the swearing-in ceremony for Rashid Khalikov, Assistant Secretary-General in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and for Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He also met that day with Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, and also with Choi Kyong-lim, President of the Human Rights Council, with whom he dined that evening.
On Tuesday, the Secretary-General met at the Palais des Nations with representatives of Geneva-based human rights non-governmental organizations, including the International Service for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
He then inaugurated the newly renovated Russian Salon, at the Palais des Nations, in the presence of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov.
In his remarks at the inaugural ceremony, the Secretary-General thanked the Russian Federation for its continuing support — “not only for the physical upgrading of UN premises, but also for recent political advances. Last year’s P5+1 agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme was a major achievement. I also want to commend Foreign Minister Lavrov for his work with [United States] Secretary of State [John] Kerry towards resolving the nightmare in Syria. These efforts show the importance of promoting peace through dialogue. This Russian Room will serve that purpose.”
Immediately afterwards the Secretary-General held a meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov. The Secretary-General thanked the Minister for his significant role in achieving recent progress on Syria. They agreed on the importance of urgently moving forward simultaneously on implementing the cessation of hostilities agreement, providing vital humanitarian assistance to civilians and returning to political negotiations.
The Secretary-General thanked the Minister for the constructive and important role that Russia plays vis-a-vis the Democratic People’s Republic Korea and the Korean Peninsula. They discussed the need to end the fighting and move towards dialogue in Yemen. The two men exchanged views on Ukraine, underlining the need for further progress on implementation of the Minsk Agreement.
The Secretary-General then departed Geneva for Madrid, Spain.