Page 457 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

ment as the Year 2001 has been designated by the United Nations General As-
sembly as the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. Last month, the Secretary
General, Kofi Annan, said:

“Dialogue is rooted in the fundamental values which the United Nations
has sought to advance for over half a century. The United Nations was
itself created in the belief that dialogue can triumph over discord, that
diversity is a universal virtue, and that the peoples of the world are far
more united by their common fate than they are divided by their separate
identities.”

As all our experience demonstrates, successful agreement in international
diplomacy is not about one nation getting its own way, but about several
nations successfully discovering the middle ground. Only when they have done
that, have they unlocked the way to an agreement which is based on the
balance and which is sustainable, and in doing so moved us all forward to a safer,
more peaceful world.

I cannot but note with satisfaction that the Palais des Nations, which is the
symbol of Geneva International, is the best place for exercise in the multilateral
diplomacy.

To start with:

1. Geneva is traditional center of humanitarian assistance and human
rights protection.

2. The presence in Geneva of the WTO, the ILO and other UN agencies
and programs involved in sustainable development activities as well as the envi-
ronmental NGO network, puts the city at the crossroad of development and
the environment and thus opens a good perspective for further consolidation
of the social and economic dimension of sustainable development activities in
Geneva.

3. With its unique Corps of Ambassadors on Disarmament, Geneva is a
natural place for intensifying UN arms regulation and disarmament efforts.
This year in addition to the work of the Conference on Disarmament,
conferences for BW and CW are being envisaged.

Geneva involvement in security matters in conjunction with its tradition of
humanitarianism make it the international capital of human security, which

435