Introduction to Ban Ki-moon

As the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon served two consecutive terms tirelessly from 2007 to 2016, stepping into the role from being the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea. We all remember the 2007-2008 international financial crisis, and that must have been a truly challenging time to have taken on the role.

Throughout his tenure at the UN, Ban Ki-moon strove to be a bridge builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and the most vulnerable people, and to make the UN more transparent and effective. We are grateful to him for the work he carried out with Member States in shaping the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and his continued contributions in this field through the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future. We are also grateful for his contributions to strengthening UN peace operations, improving humanitarian responses, and revitalising the disarmament agenda. Recent events only serve to underscore the significance of those priorities.

Ban Ki-moon’s tenure was distinguished in many ways, but two further aspects that particularly stand out relate to climate change and gender. He successfully pressed for action to combat climate change, taking us from the failure of Copenhagen to the success of the rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement in 2016. Ban Ki-moon also made inroads on gender parity in senior UN appointments. Oxford too has been on a journey in relation to this matter, and we are delighted that our Vice Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey, is in the audience – the second woman to hold the post after her immediate predecessor, who was the first.

Ban Ki-moon ensured a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment in the UN, including in relation to some difficult instances within peacekeeping. He also brought UN Women into being, as an entity that has established itself as core to UN efforts towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. He may have learnt to strengthen that priority at home too, as the father of two successful daughters as well as a son. We are also grateful that he appointed the post of Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights in 2010, taking human rights to the UN in New York in a more prominent fashion.

Ban Ki-moon serves as Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in Vienna, Austria, Chair of the IOC Ethics Commission, Chair of the Boao Forum for Asia, President of the Assembly & Chair of the Council of the Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul, Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation in Rotterdam, Distinguished Professor and Honorary Chair of the Future Strategy Institute at Seoul National University and, from today, Bynam Tudor Fellow – the highest honour Kellogg College can and is delighted to bestow.

Of all these distinctions, I want to end with one more that your UN page attests to, and that is that you met Madam Yoo, your wife who is here with us in the audience, in high school, and no doubt that is an achievement that has brought you both much support and happiness.