Activities of Secretary-General in Switzerland, 22-23 February

On Sunday, 22 February, the Secretary-General arrived in Geneva, Switzerland. On Monday, 23 February, he delivered remarks at the opening of the sixty-first session of the Human Rights Council.

He said human rights are under a full-scale attack around the world, adding that the rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force.

This assault, the Secretary-General said, is not coming from the shadows or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight - and often led by those who hold the greatest power.

He called on Member States and all those attending the session to not let the erosion of human rights become the accepted price of political expediency or geopolitical competition.

Do not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits, he added.

Later in the day, the Secretary-General addressed the high-level segment of the 2026 Session of the Conference on Disarmament. In his remarks, he said disarmament is not a luxury to be enjoyed only in times of peace. It is a means for preventing war, restoring and building trust, and saving lives.

While in Geneva, the Secretary-General also participated in an event hosted by Ignazio Cassis, Vice-President of the Swiss Federal Council and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, to mark the completion of the Portail des Nations building, the new visitor centre for the UN in Geneva. In his remarks, the Secretary-General said that he always believed that the United Nations needs to speak in a way that everyone can understand, by telling the truth, bringing clarity and giving hope.

Throughout the day, he held bilateral meetings with leaders and ministers attending the opening of the Human Rights Council, as well as a meeting with a group of human rights non-governmental organizations. The Secretary-General met with Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Manet Hun, the Prime Minister of Cambodia; Mr. Cassis; Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe; Espen Barth Eide, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway; Zheenbek Kulubaev, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan; and Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba; as well as Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, President of the Human Rights Council and Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations in Geneva.

The Secretary-General's travel back to the United States was impacted by a major snowstorm in New York. He arrived back in New York on Tuesday, 24 February.