Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bern (Switzerland), 11 September 2012
Thank you, President Widmer-Schlumpf, danke schön. Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, it is a great pleasure to see you. I am just going to wind down my visit to Switzerland. I am extremely honoured and happy to visit Switzerland on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Switzerland joining the United Nations. Ten years ago yesterday was the day when Switzerland joined the United Nations. Over the last brief period of ten years, Switzerland has shown strong leadership and commitment to peace, development and human rights of the United Nations and of the international community. But the Swiss relationship dates back to before the United Nations was founded. Their relationship dates back to the time of the League of Nations, and Geneva is the number two headquarters of the United Nations. We have four regional headquarters: in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Kenya. Among the four, in terms of strength, number of agencies and the number of staff, Geneva is home to the most number of staff and the most number of agencies. We have benefitted from the Swiss Government’s strong and generous support – politically and financially. I am very much grateful. I had the extraordinary honour of addressing the Swiss Parliament this morning. We discussed all of the issues of the United Nations ideals and objectives. Yesterday, I had again the very useful occasion of meeting with the professors and intellectuals and many young students at the University of Geneva. We discussed what Switzerland has been contributing over the last ten years, and what the international community and the United Nations can expect from Switzerland in the coming many, many years as a very responsible member of the United Nations. With President Widmer-Schlumpf, we have covered a number of very important issues and a wide range of common concerns, starting from the situation in Syria, and also sustainable development and how we could work together to meet the target of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, what should be our vision and priorities for [the period] post-2015. I will not go into more detail about what the President has just explained in detail, but as far as I am concerned and the United Nations is concerned, the Swiss Government and people have been very strongly committed in meeting and realizing the ideals and objectives of the United Nations. During such a short period of time, the Swiss have contributed a lot. First, the most successful and important contribution is having played an important and instrumental role in establishing the Human Rights Council. That is regarded as one of the most important institutional reforms of the United Nations. The Swiss have held the Chairmanship of the Peacebuilding Commission in the Burundi Configuration – this is a great contribution. Also you have produced many [people with] leadership roles in the United Nations system. Dr. Joseph Deiss was the President of the General Assembly until September last year and I worked very closely with him. You have also provided many senior staff of the United Nations and many effective mediators for preventive diplomacy. You have been very generous and I am very grateful for such very generous humanitarian assistance of the Government for the people in Syria who have been affected by the situation. We are counting on the continuing support and leadership of Switzerland, and in that regard I am very happy to be a part of this celebration of the tenth anniversary. But I think we will have to go a long way to realize all of these goals and objectives, realizing sustainable political stability all around the world, particularly in the Arab countries that are in transition. And also meeting the target of the Millennium Development Goals and establishing the vision of sustainable development in the coming years. And also protecting human rights, particularly those of people who are marginalized, poor people, women and girls, and the many poor and sick people. I think these are a common commitment and I think these are a common collective responsibility that we can and we should work together in the years to come. Thank you very much.
