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69.

Geneva International : Triangle of
Peace Building and Crisis Prevention

PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT
OF THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE
AT GENEVA
MR. VLADIMIR PETROVSKY

23 April 1999

8 0 years ago on 28 April, the Covenant of the League of Nations was
adopted at the Peace Conference in Paris. Article 7 of the Covenant
states that the seat for the League should be Geneva. On the following
day, Mr. John Gignoux, the President of the Geneva Council of State addressed
the population of the City, referring both to the bright prospect opening up
before Geneva and to the heavy responsibilities it had in store. He called on
inhabitants to welcome its illustrious guest, the League of Nations and, thus, to
perform a service for mankind. More than 80 years later, it is gratifying to note
that his words did not fall on deaf ears.

Nowadays, Geneva is the seat of the largest UN office in Europe, six UN
specialized agencies and 15 other UN organizations. It also hosts 147 Missions
to UNOG, 60 Permanent Representatives to the Conference on Disarmament
and 16 to the WTO as well as numerous non-UN international entities. In
recent years as a result of the reform initiated in 1993, the role of Geneva in
peace building and crisis prevention has been renewed and reinvigorated.
Geneva has strengthened its traditional position as a center for conference
diplomacy and UN operational activities and at the same time acquired new
functions as the repository of "know-how" in a variety of fields. Thus, Geneva
has become a three-dimensional center or triangle of UN peace-building and
crisis prevention activities.

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