45 Years in World Diplomacy

Facets of a fascinating personality: Vladimir Petrovsky

Evelina Rioukhina, UNECE

  9.00 – 10.00:      Press conference on the fight against terrorism and on related humanitarian assistance
10.00 – 11.00:      Chairing the Meeting of the Conference on Disarmament.
11.00 – 12.00:      Address to the joint meeting UNOG-OSCE-Council of Europe.
12.00 – 12.30:      Discussion with Staff Council on Reform Management.
12.30 – 13.00:      Conference-debate UN research agencies and NGOs on human security.
14.00 – 15.00:      Meeting with Swiss federal authorities.
16.00 – 17.00:      Ceremony of signing of the Protocol on Anti-Personnel Mines.
18.00 – 19.00:      Inauguration of the exhibition “Dialogue among civilisations”.
19.00 – 20.00:      Speech at Geneva University conference: “New vistas of Geneva”.

Do not be surprised. This is a typical agenda over the last couple of years of Vladimir Petrovsky, UNOG Director-General. Close to reality, it gives an image of a day’s work covering the major aspects of his activities and highlighting the multi-faceted nature of his life and personality.

A life devoted to the highest ideals

For almost half a century, beginning with his student years, Mr. Petrovsky has been concerned with the highest ideal of humanity – peace in the world. His career as a diplomat started in the Soviet Union in 1957 to reach a climax with his appointment as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in 1991. For several years, he headed Soviet delegations to sessions of the UN General Assembly and other international and European fora (UNESCO, IAEA, UNEP, OSCE). He participated in the preparation of the Helsinki Final Act and the Final Document of the First Special Session on Disarmament.

During 1992-1997, Vladimir Petrovsky was the Secretary- General’s envoy to Libya. He witnessed at first-hand how UN sanctions were applied in practice and to what effect. His fact–finding mission in 1997 resulted in a report to the Security Council showing how sanctions can discriminate. He urged that, in applying coercive measures, only the

Service in the top echelons of the United Nations

In 1992, Mr. Petrovsky was appointed Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During this time, he continued his work on peace and conflict resolution issues. As chair of the Task Force for the preparation of the “Agenda for Peace”, he could apply the 4P concepts of controlling and resolving conflicts: preventive diplomacy, peace-making, peace-keeping, peace-building, which he further developed – making it a magical 5P – with that of peaceful management. These concepts were created under the joint influence of earlier studies and researches.

Professor Petrovsky (another – this time academic – hat) holds a Doctorate in History. He is also the author of many publications, including books: The Foreign Service of the United Kingdom; Diplomacy of Downing Street 10; US Foreign Policy Thinking; The Doctrine of National Security in United States Foreign Policy Strategy; Disarmament: Concepts, Problems, Mechanisms; Security in the Nuclear and Outer Space Era.

During 1992-1997, Vladimir Petrovsky was the Secretary-General's envoy to Libya.  He witnessed at first-hand how UN sanctions were applied in practice and to what effect.  His fact-finding mission in 1997 resulted in a report to the Security Council showing how sanctions can discriminate.  He urged that, in applying coercive measures, only the most appropriate instruments be selected. These should focus on the “individuals whose behaviour we want to target rather than a blunt instrument that may affect the entire population”. Sanctions should respect a minimum “humanitarian threshold”, namely, a line past, which the political objective pursued by using such instruments, can no longer be reconciled with the scale of human suffering it causes.

In March 1993, Mr. Petrovsky was appointed Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, and in October 1993, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Conference.

He is known as a strong advocate of a teamwork both in international undertakings and structures. In 1998, he participated as Secretary-General’s representative in the promotion of the referendum on the constitution in Albania. The constructive engagement of UN, NATO and OSCE has helped Albanian people to choose the road of constitutional democracy.

Mr. Petrovsky made UNOG open to all the new actors at the world scene. He strongly encouraged close cooperation between UN and regional organizations. The first major step towards the “informal process of tri-partite consultations” between the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (now the OSCE) and the Council of Europe was taken on his initiative in 1993. It has since evolved into a useful channel of communications, helping to bridge differences in institutional culture, with the final goal always to mitigate adverse consequences of conflict in a context of respect for humanitarian concerns. The mutual benefits of these informal consultations have attracted other regional and international bodies – EU, ICRC and IOM. The process therefore continues nowadays under the name of “Tripartite Plus”.

Mr. Petrovsky’s high level contacts with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the International Organization of La Francophonie illustrate the growing links of UNOG with various regional arrangements and structures.

Partnership with business community is another area of Mr. Petrovsky’s activity.  In 1998, he participated in the creation of the Business Humanitarian Forum, aimed at bringing business and humanitarian organizations closer together in the interest of mutual understanding and cooperation, especially in areas of conflict. At its first meeting in January 1999, Mr. Petrovsky stressed the advantages of closer relations between the business community and UN humanitarian organizations, based on the complementarity of markets and human security.

Mr. Petrovsky has also pursued another interest, which is the relationship between research and policy. In 2000, he initiated the Research and Policy Dialogue, a conference which he chairs jointly with the Rector of the United Nations University. The informal network of research and training activities goes beyond the UN institutions and includes the Geneva based entities.

During his years as Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, the Conference has brought tangible results. It concluded the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (in 1996).

Mr. Petrovsky strongly favours “constructive parallel actions” at all the conferences on arms regulations and disarmament. As he often stresses, the disarmament with all its importance is only one of the major routes to security in all aspects. The core of the new concept is the human security, which means the security of human beings not only from violence but also from hunger, diseases and environmental degradation.

Geneva as a venue of the Dialogue Among Civilizations

Since his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Petrovsky strongly advocates for the expansion of the cultural activities. As he says, for him “art exists not only for the sake of art”. He deeply believes that art is best suited for promoting the culture of peace through dialogue.

During this year of the “Dialogue Among Civilizations” the UNOG has had a record number of cultural events – 80 in comparison with only 6 in 1993. The scope of activities has tremendously expanded and now includes not only art exhibitions (68) but also concerts, film festivals, theatre performances, as well as lectures, discussions and conferences.

During the presentation of Mr. Petrovsky 2001 Annual Report, the diplomatic community highly appraised the wide range of cultural activities in the UNOG as an integral part of the UN efforts to further cross-cultural understanding, which is crucial in the time of the global fight against terrorism.

“Ceux qui font Genève”: Unifying the Geneva of “rive droite” and of “rive gauche”

Vladimir Petrovsky is among Geneva’s favourite personalities. It is no surprise that he is among Ceux qui font Genève, which is the title of the book by the author and journalist Serge Bimpage, who devoted a special chapter to Vladimir Petrovsky, for his contribution not only to the political character of Geneva’s “right bank” (the international sector of the city) but also for his contributions of a personal and human nature, which «n’a rien de diplomatique. Rarement, il refuse une invitation des Genevois.» (p. 187)

Mr. Petrovsky has been always dreaming of building a symbolic bridge between the right and left banks and to dissipate the wall of distrust. He was the one who opened the doors of the Palais des Nations and welcomed the people of Geneva.

“Our policy towards the people of Geneva has always been one of friendliness and openness. I think that there should be no difference between rive droite and rive gauche . The Palais des Nations is open to the public.”

After Mr. Petrovsky’s appointment as Director-General of the UNOG and in the course of the UN reform, which started in 1993, Geneva has strengthened its traditional role as a centre of conference diplomacy and UN operational activities, and has, at the same time, acquired new functions as the repository of “knowhow” in a variety of fields. Mr. Petrovsky contributed enormously in all these domains. This contribution is a value added to new vistas for Geneva, which Mr. Petrovsky describes as follows:

“Geneva International was able to pull through and secure its place in the newly emerging system of international relations as it demonstrated its ability to merge continuity and adaptability and to pilot change. This past experience will undoubtedly serve as a major lesson for the future. Operational activities have always been one of the major strengths of Geneva-based institutions and these activities seem only to be expanding. Today, the scope of activities of international organizations in Geneva includes not only preventive action, crisis response, conflict prevention but also the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters. However, the most promising vistas of Geneva International are open as a result of the emergence of a global knowledge-based society. I strongly believe that the power of Geneva International is its pre-eminence as a centre of knowledge and know-how.”

From a “UNOG – host country” to a “Switzerland – UN” relationship.

One of the primary responsibilities of a UNOG Director-General is to maintain relations between the United Nations and the authorities of the host country. Mr. Petrovsky is especially satisfied with this cooperation. He has frequent meetings with the authorities of both city and canton of Geneva, as well as with the Federal Government. The discussions are consistently friendly and productive.

In the beginning of October 2001, the Director-General visited Bern, where discussions included the state of preparations for the referendum on Switzerland’s membership to the United Nations, and security questions, it also included forthcoming issues such as the UNOG programme of activities for the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, the United Nations agenda for 2002, including Switzerland’s commitment to the preparations for the International Year of Mountains, and the 70th anniversary of the Disarmament Conference.

Switzerland is not yet a member of the UN, however, it actively participates in its work and provides considerable support to many of its programmes, such as of UNHCR and the World Food Programme, for example. In 1996, Switzerland became a member of the Conference on Disarmament and has chaired the Conference.

Mr. Petrovsky notes in a recent address:

“Sometimes when I talk to people outside Switzerland it is difficult to explain why this country, the name of which is so closely associated with the history of internationalism and which is so heavily involved with the UN, is not among its members. We in the United Nations look forward to the day – hopefully sooner rather than later – when the Swiss flag will take its rightful place alongside those of the other 189 Member states”.

(By Evelina Rioukhina, with special thanks to all those who made available documents and materials).