United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and International Federation
President Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro shared common humanitarian
concerns during their first-ever meeting, in Madrid, on 6 June.
The UN Secretary General stopped in the Spanish capital, on
his way to the G-8 meeting in Germany.
The leaders exchanged views on three major issues: the challenges
facing the African continent, the effects of climate change
and the consequences of world migration flows.
President Suárez del Toro explained the Federation’s
commitment to fighting the spread of killer diseases such as
AIDS, malaria, and measles in Africa as well as the scaling
up of programmes to reduce poverty and significantly strengthen
the capacities of African Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
He pointed out that the Federation’s Global Agenda, based
on Red Cross Red Crescent core areas of activity, is also aligned
with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, in order to
contribute to their achievement. Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies across the world are working towards reducing the
number of deaths and injuries from disasters, illnesses and
their impact on vulnerable people and promoting respect for
diversity and human dignity.
They also broached a subject that is a “personal priority”
for the UN Secretary General - climate change, and its impact.
The Federation President added that the Federation is strongly
committed to helping communities around the world meet this
new challenge and is “fine tuning” its disaster
management systems – which include risk reduction, disaster
preparedness and response – to help people be better prepared
to face the impact of disaster and become more resilient.
Both leaders agreed that the challenge is global, and that better
and closer cooperation between the two organizations is vital
to meet it.
The third item on the agenda was migration, one of the Federation’s
priorities, underlined Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro. Today,
many Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provide migrants -
in both regular and irregular situations – with food,
shelter, health care, and protection during detention or repatriation.
A major theme of the just-ended European regional conference
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the need to protect,
support and assist migrants, whatever their legal status, and
to promote respect for their rights, is included in the conference’s
final document, the Istanbul Commitments. Migration will also
be a major theme of the upcoming International Conference of
the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva in November, to which
the world’s governments are invited.
For his part, Ban Ki-moon noted that the first UN debate, held
in the General Assembly in September 2006 was only the beginning
of a real initiative to tackle the issue. He and his team are
aiming, he said, at organizing a global forum on migration,
involving all policy makers and major actors in order to find
solutions to what he termed “a very serious problem”.
“This meeting was the leaders’ first personal step
on the way for both institutions to find the most efficient
and effective way to cooperate and coordinate their humanitarian
efforts while respecting their specific roles,” commented
Encho Gospodinov, Head of the Federation’s New York delegation,
present at the meeting.
“The challenges we all face today are so considerable
that we need to work together to meet them. The most vulnerable
communities and major donors alike are closely watching us to
see how fast and how well we can deliver the services they expect
from us.”
The meeting was also an occasion for both men to exchange personal
memories of their beginnings with the Red Cross. Ban Ki-moon
recalled that: “My involvement with the Republic of Korea
Red Cross, when I was 17, changed my life forever.”
In 1962, as a Red Cross youth volunteer leader, he was selected,
with a group of other young people from some 40 countries, to
attend an International Red Cross youth programme in the United
States. Hosted by the American Red Cross, it included visits
to local Red Cross chapters, where he was impressed by the work
of volunteers and staff at the community level.
The programme also included meeting the then United States President,
John F. Kennedy, who asked him what he wanted to do in life.
When Ban Ki-moon replied that he wanted to become a diplomat,
John Kennedy remarked that if he wanted it badly enough, then
he would become a diplomat. This convinced the young man that
he would be able to achieve his dream.
For his part, the Federation President alluded to his beginnings
with the Red Cross, as a young volunteer, some 30 years ago,
and shared some of his early memories with his guest.
Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro also briefed Ban Ki-moon
on the Federation’s work in the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, and on the exchanges between the two Red
Cross Societies, especially with regard to family reunifications,
for which the UN Secretary General expressed his appreciation.
Before accepting the Federation President’s invitation
to visit the Federation Secretariat in Geneva, Ban Ki-moon said
he valued the Federation’s strong contribution to United
Nations debates on humanitarian matters as well as its commitment
to humanitarian principles – and to neutrality in particular
- and its support of international humanitarian law. In a meeting
last month, in New York, Ban Ki-moon had been briefed by Federation
Secretary General Markku Niskala on the Federation’s International
Disaster Response Laws, Rules and Principles (IDRL) programme.
In Madrid, both leaders noted that their respective organizations
were changing and adapting to the new realities of the world.
This was their first face-to-face encounter, but, they said,
only the first of what would be a long history of meetings and
a signal of lasting cooperation between the two institutions.
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United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and International
Federation President Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro
shared common humanitarian concerns during their first-ever
meeting, in Madrid, on 6 June. They exchanged views on
three major issues: the challenges facing the African
continent, the effects of climate change and the consequences
of world migration flows. (p15821)
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Ban
Ki-moon shaking hands with Encho Gospodinov, Head of the
Federation’s New York delegation, present at the
meeting. “The challenges we all face today are so
considerable that we need to work together to meet them.
The most vulnerable communities and major donors alike
are closely watching us to see how fast and how well we
can deliver the services they expect from us,” commented
M. Gospodinov. (p15822)
The meeting was also an occasion for both men to exchange
personal memories of their beginnings with the Red Cross.
Ban Ki-moon recalled that: “My involvement with
the Republic of Korea Red Cross, when I was 17, changed
my life forever.” For his part, the Federation President
alluded to his early experiences with the Red Cross, as
a young volunteer, some 30 years ago. (p15823)
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