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56.

STATEMENT
BY MR. VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE TOLERANCE EXHIBITION

Plaine de Plainpalais, Geneva, Thursday, 13 August 1998

Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

I t is a great pleasure for me to address you at the opening of the

Tolerance 98 exhibition today, one of the major events organized
this year in Geneva within the framework of the 150th
anniversary of the Swiss Confederation.

This exhibition is taking place at a most opportune and appropriate time.
We stand on the threshold of a new century and examine the present in order
to better understand and project the future. The process of civilizational
changes which is developing in the world, and the collective efforts of the
United Nations to conduct these changes in an orderly fashion, gives new life
to the concept of tolerance which has always been part and parcel of European,
and in particular, Swiss history. In the words of the Swiss Secretary of State:
"Just like the United Nations, Switzerland realizes that strengthened
international cooperation is the only way to meet the technological, economic,
social and environmental challenges facing humankind as the new millennium
draws near".

One of the main challenges facing the international community is the
creation of a culture of peace which can only be possible if the spirit of

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