The anniversary of the day the United Nations Charter was implemented in 1945 was celebrated on Thursday at an event organized by the Greek foreign ministry, the Attica Region, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece.
The event began with the raising of the Greek and UN flags on the Acropolis, followed by statements and laying of wreaths at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier at Syntagma Square.
In a welcoming statement, Foreign Affairs Minister George Kotsiras said this year’s commemoration was of special significance, as Greece serves as observer at the UN Security Council since October 1, and where it will assume its seat as non-permanent member on January 1, 2025. The guidelines of the Greek membership consist of “three Greek words with universal value: dialog, diplomacy, and democracy.”
Maria Clara Martin, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Greece, conveyed a message by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who noted that “in today’s turbulent world, hope is not enough. Hope needs decisive action and multifaceted solutions for peace, joint prosperity, and a thriving planet. Hope needs all countries to work as one. Hope needs the United Nations.”
Alternate Attica Region Governor Christina Kefalogianni underlined that the UN was “founded at the conclusion of World War II to protect future generations from the scourge of war and to guarantee a safer and sustainable future for all of us. These goals are as relevant today as they were 79 years ago.”
The Charter of the United Nations, its founding document, was signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. It came into force on October 24, 1945.
Zappeion exhibition
Documents of historical and archival interest from the first years (1947-1963) of the common progress of the Greek state and the UNHCR are presented in an exhibition at Zappeion Hall until Friday, by the UNHCR and the Greek foreign ministry.
The UNHCR has a continuous presence of over 70 years in Greece, assisting the Greek governments in handling needs related to refugee flows. The first UNHCR office in Greece was founded in Athens in 1952.
Among the exhibition pieces at Zappeion is a press release dated August 1, 1955 announcing that the Greek government is donating 30 tons of raisins to the UN Refugees Fund (UNREF), the first time UNREF received a gift in kind. It also includes an excerpt from the address of Constantine Efstathiadis, Greece’s representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, dated July 13, 1956, who pays tribute to the first high commissioner of the UNHCR, Gerrit van Heuven Goedhart after his death on July 8, 1956. Efstathiadis proposed that a bust of Goedhart be made from the famed marble of Tinos island, to honor the high commissioner’s gesture of using the money from the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 for UNHCR projects on Tinos and for shutting down the refugee center there.
(Photo: © UNHCR/Socrates Baltagiannis)
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
