Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider,
President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva Nathalie Fontanet,
President of the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly Teodoro Herbosa,
Honourable ministers, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It is with immense gratitude and satisfaction that I welcome all of you to the newly renovated headquarters building of WHO – welcome to our house.
I thank the Swiss Confederation for its exemplary leadership and support for this project.
I also recognize the steadfast contributions of our host, the Canton of Geneva, and the Foundation for Buildings for International Organizations.
After more than three years of work, this building has been upgraded to meet modern safety, security and environmental requirements, along with a new low-energy, low-maintenance extension.
This building is of course hugely significant to WHO as our home, and to me personally.
This building is where I started my time as Director-General, and I look forward to moving back, and to spending my last two years as DG here.
In fact, we were born at almost the same time – me in 1965, and this building in 1966.
The President of the World Health Assembly that year, the Swiss doctor Arnold Sauter inaugurated the building with these words, which are engraved on the stone in front of us:
“We must not see this building as merely a construction. It must be regarded as a symbol of the creative will of the peoples who are working together in the World Health Organization to apply its ideals.”
This building is more than bricks and mortar, glass and steel. It is a platform for serving the people of the world.
What happens inside these walls matters only in as much as the impact it delivers in countries to promote, provide and protect the health of the world’s people.
This building is a testament to Switzerland’s and Geneva’s commitment to advancing multilateralism, health, and peace.
But it is also a building of architectural significance: the only building in Geneva on the Swiss Heritage Association’s list of twenty protected buildings.
It was designed by the renowned Swiss architect Jean Tschumi.
Jean Tschumi's son, Bernard, himself a renowned architect, cannot join us this evening, but sends his compliments for overcoming the many technical challenges in bringing the building to a modern standard while preserving its architectural heritage.
I thank everyone involved in the renovation of this building:
WHO's own Bruce Leech and his team, and all of the colleagues here, for their commitment and dedication to seeing this immense project through, and especially to the contractors and architects who turned vision into reality.
And of course, my thanks again to the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva.
We are proud to be WHO, and proud to call Geneva, Switzerland and this building home.
Merci beaucoup. I thank you.