Director-General's remarks at La Journée oser tous les métiers

 Meeting with children on the occasion of the Career Exploration Day

Thursday, 13 November 2025, at 2.00 p.m.
Tempus, Palais des Nations

Dear colleagues,
Dear children,

Welcome to the Palais des Nations, the heart of the United Nations here in Geneva! It is wonderful to see so many of you today.

This place is very special. The Palais des Nations is one of the most important buildings in the world for diplomacy – that means it is where countries come together to talk, solve problems and make decisions that affect the whole planet and everyone living on it, including you!

Here in Geneva, there are more than 40 United Nations organizations, with around 11,000 people from all over the world — including, of course, some of your parents! Together they work on important global issues like peace, human rights, health and the environment.

As you may have seen during your visit, the United Nations Office at Geneva — or UNOG for short —is like a small city, with people doing many different kinds of jobs.

Some of those jobs help make big international meetings happen — like the Human Rights Council, the Conference on Disarmament, and the International Labor Conference. We prepare conference rooms, translate speeches, organize documents, and make sure that delegates from every country can communicate and work together — even when they don’t speak the same language! We also make sure that everyone is safe — you may have seen our security dogs in action this morning.

Geneva has long been a place where countries come to talk and try to end wars. Many peace negotiations have taken place at the Palais — for example, discussions on Syria, Libya, Cyprus, Georgia, Yemen, and Sudan. Geneva is known for being neutral, safe and welcoming - thus making it a perfect place to make peace.

We also help create international rules that make everyday life safer. The next time you put on a helmet — for biking, skiing, or rollerblading — look inside. You’ll find a small inscription which says “EC”. That means that your helmet meets certain safety standards developed by the UN Economic Commission, right here at the Palais des Nations. That inscription gives you assurances that your helmets really protect you if you fall.

You can also talk to friends or family members across the world thanks to the work of the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, located just across the Place des Nations. The ITU also helps set rules for safe internet use, keeping your online games or social media safe from hackers.

The Palais des Nations is a historical building; it is almost 100 years old. It was built in 1929 to host the League of Nations, the first international organization designed to maintain peace after World War I. Even though the League didn’t solve every problem — as shown by World War II — it laid the foundation for the United Nations we have today.

The memory of the League of Nations is important, and we help keeping it alive here in Geneva, as you may have seen when visiting the Library. Our archives hold over 15 million pages of the League of Nations documents — all preserved and now accessible online, so anyone, including children or students, can learn about the early days of international cooperation.

Culture is also an important part of what we do here. Exhibitions, concerts, and cultural activities help bring people together, reduce barriers, and help build mutual respect. Art can promote peace and understanding, that is why we call it cultural diplomacy.

So, the Palais des Nations is a big and living institution that connects the past, present and future of international cooperation. It is place where people have come — and will continue to come — to solve global challenges and make the world a better place.

In closing, I am happy to answer all your questions.

Thank you.