Czech Delegation, including Minister Tomáš Petříček for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Ivana Červenková of the Czech Embassy in Vienna, visited the Centre for a meeting with BKMC Co-Chair Heinz Fischer and CEO Monika Froehler on January 18th, 2019. The delegation discussed the current dynamics of European Relations as well as the history of Czech-Austrian relationship, the role of creating stability in Central Europe, and the upcoming 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain.
On January 14th, 2018, H.E. Ambassador Eric Anderson of the Embassy of Peru in Austria and Mr. Alexandre Guessel, Director of Political Advice of the Council of Europe visited the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens. They respectively had a meeting with the Centre’s Co-chair Heinz Fischer who served as the 11th President of the Republic of Austria from 2004 to 2016.
Learn more about the work of the Council of Europe here: https://www.coe.int/web/portal
BKMC Co-chair Ban Ki-moon delivered a special lecture about the United Nations and Global Leadership in the 21st Century at his old school, Chungju High School, on January 7th, 2019. He was welcomed by around 500 students, teachers, and parents who he encouraged to become Global Citizens. For everyone to be able to learn history and become a global citizen, Ban made a donation to help the school build a history hall. The President of the school said that he hopes more students to grow their dreams to become a world leader like Ban Ki-moon.
The Global Diplomacy Convergence Program (GDC Program) of the Global Diplomacy and Trade Institute at Konkuk University celebrated its first matriculation ceremony on January 10th, 2019. Co-chair Ban Ki-moon attended the ceremony to deliver a speech and encourage the scholars to become global leaders who possess international competitiveness.
Established in last November, the institute welcomed about 50 scholars who have expertise in various different fields. The GDC program offers lectures given by diplomats, world leaders, and experts in the field of international trade and diplomacy.
On January 8th, 2019, Co-chair Heinz Fischer and CEO Monika Froehler of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens welcomed Ambassador Friedrich Stift of the Austrian Embassy in Beijing, Ambassador LI Xiaosi of the Chinese Embassy in Vienna, and Professor Gerd Kaminski of the University of Vienna to the Centre.
The Ambassadors and former President of the Republic of Austria discussed ways to develop the international relations between Austria and China and to achieve sustainable development under the consultancy of the Professor. Professor Kaminski is a Chinese affairs consultant to the Austrian Foreign Ministry who has also been the head of the Austro-Chinese society since 1971 and of Boltzmann institute for Chinese and southeast Asian research in Vienna since 1978.
During the last days of the year 2018 and the first days of the year 2019, BKMC Co-chairs Ban Ki-moon and Heinz Fischer and CEO Monika Froehler met with the supporters, donors and potential partners of the Centre in Vienna, Austria. Among them was Sauli Niinistö of Finland during his visit to Austria.
Some of the Board members of the Centre residing in Austria, Ambassador Sadiq Marafi of the Kuwaiti Embassy and Ambassador Shin Dong-ik of the Korean Embassy, hosted a BKMC get-together at their residence where Senior Advisor Andrea Pfanzelter at KAICIID was also present as a Board member of the Centre. The Ban Ki-moon Centre took the opportunities to show its gratitude to both the Republic of Korea and the State of Kuwait as well as individual Board members that have continuously shown their greatest support to the Centre last year.
The Co-chairs also expressed the Centre’s appreciation to CEO Jongbum Park of Youngsan Group that is one of the few private donors of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens with a commitment to make annual donations to empower women and youth. Youngsan, based in Vienna, has achieved steady growth every year in the fields of production, trading and distribution and has become a responsible company that fulfills social responsibilities and duties through various social contributions.
CEO Monika Froehler said, “the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens has just celebrated its first anniversary. Thanks to all of our partners, friends and collaborators for their support on our journey. A global citizen mindset is essential for the implementation of the SDGs. We are eager to work with you and build on what we achieved.“
The Ban Ki-moon Centre sends its wishes for the best of luck and lots of happiness to everyone for the new year 2019.
Watch Co-chair Ban Ki-moon’s season’s greetings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENAEuGpSd-E
Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens’ Co-chair Ban Ki-moon delivered a keynote and had a panel discussion at an event hosted by a leading French agricultural cooperative group InVivo on December 19th, 2018.
“We are at a point of historical inflection in demographic and environmental levels,” said Ban.
InVivo aims to help French agriculture and agricultural cooperation to regain their rightful place in the global food value chain. CEO Thierry Blandinières of InVivo said that the company is committed to bringing solutions for the challenges that the country and the world face. In order to achieve the sustainable development of the planet and human population, InVivo focuses on four fields of expertise: Agriculture, Animal Nutrition and Health, Retail and Wine.
Learn more about the group here: https://www.invivo-group.com/en
Photo: Jeudi Photo
On December 17th, 2018, BKMC Co-chair Ban Ki-moon received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Bordeaux in France. At the degree conferring ceremony, President Manuel Tunon de Lara of the university conferred the degree and a badge to Ban. It was to acknowledge Ban Ki-moon’s commitments to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including achieving gender equality along with women’s empowerment and adapting to climate change.
“I just wanted to lead by example,” said Ban.
During the ceremony, an academic conversation was conducted between Professor Anne-Marie Tournepiche of Public Law at the University (a specialist in international and European law, law of armed conflicts and law relating to refugees) and Professor Sébastien-Yves Laurent of Political Science (a specialist in security matters and international relations). Also, a master’s student, Chayma Koucha, gave a speech which was followed by the degree acceptance speech given by Ban.
Photo: University of Bordeaux
Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens’ Co-chair Ban Ki-moon delivered a keynote at the official launch of Global Compact Network Thailand (GCNT), setting off private-sector collaboration for country’s sustainable development, in Bangkok, Thailand on December 14th, 2018. Founded in 2017, GCNT is currently joined by 40 leading Thai corporates whose common purpose is to facilitate balanced and sustainable economic, social and environmental development in accordance with United Nations Global Compact — a collaborative network of private sectors that encourages businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies with more than 13,000 members in 160 countries.
“By assembling leaders from the Thai private sector to form a Global Compact local network, the critical work that you are undertaking to alight your business with the ideals of the United Nations has my deep respect. Our world is going through pronounced changes resulting in elevated uncertainties and new risks. Keep working to make business a force for good. Together, we can respond to the urgency of our global challenges and construct a better tomorrow,” said Ban.
GCNT‘s primary mission in 2019 is to provide private organizations with necessary guidance to ensure that they recognize the role of business case for the achievement of sustainable development and enter the GCNT membership to create high-impact collaborations.
President Suphachai Chearavanont of GCNT says,
“Regarding the four major principles of sustainability, Thailand will start with human rights because it is the critical issue that contributes to the country’s credibility and international economic relations. At GCNT, we realize that human rights is a very sensitive subject and concerns various aspects, including child labors, foreign workers, female labors, welfare, and several other lesser-known issues. Therefore, it is important for us to identify human rights as an urgent priority that needs to be addressed within a short time frame. Apart from taking the role of center in sharing knowledge and opening up learning opportunity for members through activities as previously said, we also would like to invite business organizations across the country to join us in building a strong network capable of impacting a concrete change in the society, with aim to attain 100 members by end of 2019,”
Read more about the launch event and the network here: https://read.bi/2EBCK86
December 12th is endorsed by the United Nations as the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day to call for collective action to ensure that everyone across the world gets access to quality health services without having to suffer from any financial difficulties.
UHC is a fundamentally political goal rooted in the human right to health and is also considered an important investment that countries should make. The UHC Day on 12 December aims to mobilize diverse stakeholders to call for stronger, more equitable health systems to achieve universal health coverage, leaving no one behind. It has become the annual rallying point for the growing global movement for ‘Health for All.‘
On an ed-op on “Why public finance is Key to Delivering the human right to health,” BKMC Co-chair Ban Ki-moon calls on political leaders to demonstrate their will to finance the public health systems.
“Our advice to US states, to India, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya and other countries approaching the cross roads like Nigeria and Pakistan is to take this path, as this is the only navigable route to health for all and just, stable and prosperous societies,” said Ban.
“Health is a human right,” Ban says “When people are not able to access the healthcare they need, especially if this is for reasons of cost, their human rights are denied. It is vital for the wider fight for rights, justice and sustainable development that policymakers’ actions are informed by this linkage.”
Read the ed-op: https://theelders.org/…/why-public-finance-key-delivering-h…
Learn more about the UHC Day: 
http://universalhealthcoverageday.org/
Photo: The Elders