New Year’s reception of the German International Club in Geneva

Mr. Tatu,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my honour and a great pleasure to speak before you tonight, ushering in the New Year together. Thank you for having me with you and also for putting the spotlight on international Geneva, and in particular the United Nations.

International Geneva is indeed a very special place. It is the second largest representation of the United Nations after New York. Its strength is the accumulation of international organizations, combined with 177 permanent representations of UN Member States, more than 400 non-governmental organizations, an outstanding international scientific community and numerous companies, large and small from all around the world.

Germany and Germans have always played an important and active role in international Geneva. With more than two billion US$ in 2014 Germany is the fourth biggest contributor to the UN budget. An important share of these contributions benefits organizations based in Geneva. The international organizations in Geneva count more than 23,000 staff. There are more than 330 Germans working in the core UN agencies here in Geneva alone. Beyond the UN, think tanks such as the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung build a bridge between Germany and the world, via international Geneva. Many Germans enrich the Swiss research landscape: It was under the leadership of a German Director-General, Prof. Rolf Heuer, that the Higgs Boson particle was discovered at CERN. The media channel ARD has its own broadcasting team here, covering the whole of Switzerland from their Geneva base. If international Geneva is such an inspiring place, it is also thanks to these and many other Germans and German speakers, including all of you in the room
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Ladies and gentlemen, even though all of its activities and actors are spread out across town, international Geneva finds its symbolic embodiment in the Palais des Nations. The Palais attracts over 100,000 visitors every year - with 30% of the group tours held in German. Cultural activities, sharing the artistic diversity of our Member States, have a great tradition at the Palais and many of you have been faithful participants. On 24 October 2015, United Nations Day, we opened the Palais to the public. Almost 20,000 people came to celebrate with us the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, participating in a wealth of activities, including a German concert in one of the most beautiful rooms at the Palais. On 8 November of last year, the Ariana Park, surrounding the Palais, was opened for a training session for the Course de l’Escalade, attracting almost 4,000 participants. All these activities help us integrate international and local Geneva. We will continue to work in this spirit during 2016. A number of interesting events are already lined up, for example the second edition of the TEDx Place des Nations on 11 February which I encourage you to sign up to on our website as of Monday.

One important challenge that we will have to face in the coming years is the renovation of the Palais des Nations. The Palais is a historic symbol and a magnet to visitors, but technologies are no longer adequate, parts of the building are not in line with today’s security and health standards. Adjustments have to be made to increase energy efficiency and to better use the space. This will result in long-term operational cost savings. A Strategic Heritage Plan has been prepared to encompass all these elements and, incidentally, we have a German national, our Director of Administration, Mr. Clemens Adams, overseeing this major project.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have spoken about the actors and places that make up international Geneva. Now let me say a few words about substance. While New York is well known for the strategic political decisions that are taken at the General Assembly and the Security Council, it is less well known that Geneva is the operational hub for the international system’s activities implemented to support peace, rights and well-being. This work directly affects every single person on this planet.

Look at the activities to build and maintain peace, the first of the three pillars: Geneva is the venue of choice for UN-mediated peace negotiations. The city provides neutral ground for conflicting parties to meet and negotiate. Last year we hosted talks on Syria, Yemen, Georgia, Libya and the Great Lakes. Preventing and resolving conflict will give people real perspectives to lead happy and prosperous lives in their own countries, instead of becoming refugees, to mention just one benefit. We currently count more than 60 million forcibly displaced persons, the highest figure in post-war history. A strong international Geneva with the headquarters of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the Red Cross movement can make a difference and does make a difference in addressing the consequences and the root causes of the current crisis. Germany has reached out to the international community to support these Geneva-based agencies in their coordinated response and to raise additional funds.

The Conference on Disarmament is also meeting here in Geneva and Germany is one of the most active countries in the Geneva disarmament community, with Ambassador Biontino a well-respected expert in the field of nuclear disarmament and new weapons technologies. For many years, Germany has been actively engaged in practical disarmament measures to reduce the availability of illicit small arms in specific target countries.

Alongside the work on peace, activities in support of human rights are the second important pillar: Geneva is the international centre of human rights work, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council both being based here. In 2015, Ambassador Rücker from Germany left his really sterling mark as the President of the Human Rights Council, the principal inter-governmental body of the UN examining thematic and country-specific situations of human rights violations and taking action to address them. Thanks to Ambassador Rücker’s efforts, important efficiency gains were realized, for example by readjusting the frequency of some resolutions to the benefit of other emerging issues. To improve effectiveness, he encouraged States to implement recommendations resulting from the Universal Periodic Review of their human rights records. Under the German chairmanship ties with civil society were strengthened and initiatives such as that for a new website, were launched to increase transparency. Ambassador Rücker’s overall aim was to increase trust in the Council’s work and between all its actors, thereby strengthening the human rights pillar at the UN.

Germany will continue to play an important role as a member of the Human Rights Council until 2018. We look forward to its continued support for cross-cutting human rights issues such as human trafficking, housing, water and sanitation, the right to privacy in the digital age – all topics with a very strong operational base here in Geneva.

The third pillar to complement the peace and human rights work is well-being: Many activities and discussions in support of sustainable development are ‘made in Geneva’, with agencies working on environment, nutrition, labour and health. Geneva-based institutions in the field of international health have greatly benefited from Germany’s financial support. Last year Germany contributed to replenishing the funds of the Geneva-based Vaccine Alliance GAVI, hosting a related conference in Berlin where a total of USD 7.5 billion were pledged for 2016 2020. Chancellor Merkel addressed the World Health Assembly here in Geneva in May of last year with a visionary message underlining the importance of the World Health Organization for the global health system, while urging the Organization to better master in the future health emergencies, such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Together with WHO, Germany launched the global initiative ‘Healthy Systems – Healthy Lives’ to bring together global health actors for a coordinated, effective and measurable effort to strengthen health systems across the world. During its G7 presidency, Germany underlined the importance of Geneva-based organizations of the UN system, putting its weight behind global health issues such as neglected tropical diseases, antibiotic resistance and implementation of international health regulations.

But Geneva does not only work for the well-being and development of countries in the South. The fact that you can use your mobile phone, for example, to call your friends is due to standards established and agreements reached here in Geneva, at the World Trade Organization, the World International Property Organization and the International Telecommunication Union.

As you can see from these examples, activities coming from international Geneva have an impact on people’s lives around the world. Geneva is very much more than the sum of its parts. To make these examples better known, we created the Perception Change Project. One of its projects was the preparation of a cook book with recipes for peace, rights and well-being. It provides a fun format to explain how international Geneva works. The book also contains some real food recipes, contributed by Geneva chefs, including several creations by Prashant Chipkar of the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Thanks to our committed German colleagues the book is also available in German and I have brought each of you a copy as a small New Year’s gift.

An important aim of the Perception Change Project is to improve cooperation across themes and across sectors and to better integrate the Geneva community. The project already has more than 70 partners, including UN agencies and programmes, the Rotary Club in Geneva, the Graduate Institute and other research institutes, NGOs and media partners. Wherever you work – in a company, an NGO, academia or media - I invite you to bring new partners to this fantastic network. Making the real value of Geneva better known to the world will benefit all of us.

Meine Damen und Herren, wir leben zusammen in einer Stadt, deren Bedeutung weit höher ist, als ihre Größe es zunächst vermuten lässt. Ich wünsche mir für dieses Jahr, dass wir dieses außergewöhnliche Genfer Netzwerk festigen. Ich hoffe, dass das internationale und lokale Genf weiter miteinander verwachsen und dass sich neue Kooperationen und Synergien bilden zwischen den internationalen Organisationen, Nichtregierungsorganisationen, der Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft und den Medien. Ich freue mich, dass wir dafür heute Abend einen guten Auftakt geben können.

Ich danke Ihnen herzlich und wünsche Ihnen ein gutes und erfolgreiches Jahr 2016.

Vielen Dank.