On the 30 March 2016, Ban Ki-moon was chosen by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Uppsala University to deliver the 2016 lecture for leading the UN with a steady hand, working tirelessly to overcome the challenges to international peace and security. His lecture was titled ‘Evolving Threats, Timeless Values: The United Nations in a Changing Global Landscape’.
About the Lecturer
Ban Ki-moon served as the eight Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007-2016). His priorities lied in mobilising world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic crises to pandemics and pressures on resources, such as food, energy and water.
Mr Ki-moon was actively involved in the climate conferences, notably Paris 2015, as well as the development of Agenda 2030, decided on by the General Assembly 2015. Mr Ki-moon advocated women’s rights and gender equality as seen in setting up the UN Women in 2010, and LGBT rights.
Ban Ki-moon holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and has a long career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, notably as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004-2006.
About the lecture
In the lecture, Ban Ki-moon explained in his speech how he thinks of Dag Hammarskjöld every day in the course of his duties as Secretary-General, and how he felt both privileged and humbled to be serving in the role his predecessor once filled so masterfully.
Mr Ki-moon went on to underscore the many challenges the world currently faces, among them climate change, massive displacement, human rights abuses and terrorism.