Activities of Secretary-General in France, 7-9 October
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Paris, France, in the morning of Sunday, 7 October, after a flight from New York that left on Saturday evening.
On Sunday morning, he travelled from Paris to the eastern city of Strasbourg, venue for the World Forum for Democracy, hosted by the Council of Europe.
On Monday morning, the Secretary-General delivered the keynote address at the opening session of the World Forum for Democracy. He said that he has consistently urged leaders to stop flouting human rights and start meeting the legitimate demands of their people. (See Press Release SG/SM/14568)
On the margins of that event, he also held talks with Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; Abdel-Ilah Benkiran, Prime Minister of Morocco; and Maria Leissner, Secretary-General of the Community of Democracies.
On Monday afternoon, the Secretary-General left Strasbourg for Paris.
On Monday evening, he held talks with Laurent Fabius, Minister for Foreign Affairs of France. Later, he held talks with Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister of France.
On Tuesday morning, the Secretary-General held discussions at the Elysée Palace with François Hollande, President of France. They were joined by Foreign Minister Fabius. After that meeting, the Secretary-General and President Hollande spoke to reporters at a joint press conference.
The Secretary-General later visited the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He participated in a ceremony where he presented UNESCO with a natural science textbook printed by the Organization in 1956 and distributed to schoolchildren, the Secretary-General among them, in post-war Korea. After that, he held talks with the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova. Later, he addressed the Executive Board of UNESCO. (See Press Release SG/SM/14571)
Before departure for the airport, Mr. Ban and his delegation visited the Hotel des Invalides and the new Department of Islamic Art in the Louvre Museum. He later left Paris for New York, where he arrived later on Tuesday evening.