Activities of Secretary-General in Portugal, 5-6 November

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was in Lisbon on Monday, 5 November.

In the morning, the Secretary-General received the José Aparecido de Oliveira Prize from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) at the CPLP Headquarters.

The Secretary-General was interviewed at the same venue by RTP África, and then by Reuters at the Altice Arena, the venue of Web Summit 2018.  The Secretary-General then held bilateral meetings at the Altice Arena with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web; Vera Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality; and John Tory, Mayor of Toronto.

In the evening, the Secretary-General spoke at the opening ceremony of Web Summit 2018 on the theme “Nurturing a digital future that is safe and beneficial for all”.  The Secretary-General saluted the scientific progress that is helping cure diseases, conquer hunger and drive economic growth, and highlighted how the United Nations is already profiting from new technologies across the agenda.

He also addressed the many challenges and perils associated with frontier technologies, stressing that the existence and use of autonomous weapons with the discretion and capacity to take human lives is “politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be banned by international law”.  (See Press Release SG/SM/19332.)

The Secretary-General departed Lisbon early on Tuesday, 6 November, arriving in New York that afternoon.