HIGHLIGHTS

December 12, 2013

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CHALLENGES CHINESE
REGIME OVER ORGAN HARVESTING ATROCITIES

In July 1999 the Chinese Communist Party launched an intensive nationwide wave of persecution, designed to eradicate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong and leading to the arrest and detention of hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners; whereas there are reports that Uyghur and Tibetan prisoners have also been subjected to forced organ transplants.

LINKS: Full text - Organ harvesting overview - Summary of key evidence - Congressional hearing.

March 8, 2013

UNIPHONIES FRIBOURG
UNIVERSITÉ DE FRIBOURG

CAUSERIE-DÉBAT AVEC BARBARA HENDRICKS
Vendredi 8 mars, 18h30, Aula Magna, Université de Fribourg

Femmes créatrices de paix Causerie-débat ave2 la soprano Barbara Hendricks, ambassadrice de bonne volonté du Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies pour les Réfugiés (UNHCR)

Les Uniphonies Fribourg 2013 sont particulièrement fières de permettre au public fribourgeois de rencontrer une artiste de renommée mondiale engagée pour la Paix. La chanteuse classique Barbara Hendricks a en effet été la première ambassadrice de bonne volonté de l'UNHCR. Son engagement au nom de la cause des réfugiés remonte à 25 ans. Elle va à la rencontre des déplacés et de personnalités politiques et humanitaires en Asie, en Afrique et en Europe. Elle manifeste un intérêt tout particulier au sort des femmes réfugiées et participe activement auxévénements destinés à sensibiliser l'opinion publique au drame des personnes expatriées, qui ont dû tout laisser pour fuir la guerre et les dangers. Depuis 2001, elle est un membre actif du conseil du Fonds d'éducation pour les réfugiés. Lors de la causerie-débat à Fribourg, le 8 mars, à 18h30, Mme Hendricks défendra avec la passion qu’on lui connaît les droits des femmes réfugiées. Elle décrira leur rôle dans la reconstruction de la vie des déplacés. La célèbre soprano parlera aussi de l’art comme instrument de paix.

June 14, 2012

Historical visit: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, meets Barbara Hendricks during her first European trip since 1988, in Bern, Switzerland, under the auspices of the President of the Swiss Confederation in collaboration with Etoile d'Azur - Help with Art

"Coming to this conference, I have learned that we can all work together. As I said earlier, I felt at home. I felt I had come back to meet members of my family. We are not just a family of nations, we are a family of peoples. People to people relationships are the most important kind of relationships. I would like you to think of Burma not just as a nation, but as peoples, human beings like all of you. I would like you to think of our young people especially as your own young people, your own children." Aung San Suu Kyi 14.6.12 at the International Labour Conference 2012 in Geneva

Aung San Suu Kyi on historic visit to Europe
Nobel laureate on whirlwind tour

BERN, Switzerland — A rock star welcome greeted Aung San Suu Kyi as she embarked on her first trip to Europe in 24 years. But after a whirlwind of standing ovations, speeches and receptions, it all became too much, and she fell ill Thursday during a news conference in Switzerland.

The 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate became sick shortly after saying how exhausted she was after her long trip from Asia to Europe, which brought her to Geneva late Wednesday night. It was not known how her apparent exhaustion would affect the rest of a tightly packed schedule, which includes delivering her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo on Saturday, 21 years after winning the award. "Having stayed in one place for so long, I found the plane journey out to the West extremely exhausting and a little bit disorienting because I couldn't adjust to the new time as quickly as I might have 24 years ago," Suu Kyi told reporters. "It may, of course, have something to do with age. It may have to do with lack of practice." The United Nations in Geneva was the first stop of her two-week European tour. "You fill this room with the light of your spirit", said Juan Somavia, the ILO's director general. The evening before, as Suu Kyi arrived at her hotel shortly before midnight after a long flight, spontaneous applause erupted in the lobby as the staff recognized their special guest. Suu Kyi, who endured 15 years of house arrest and once feared permanent exile if she ever left Myanmar, has become the country's most electric ambassador.

During this trip, Suu Kyi is expected to lay out how her country has changed and what still needs to be done before it can be called a proper democracy. She also had planned to address both houses of Britain's parliament, receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford, attend a U2 concert in Dublin, and deliver in Oslo the acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that she won in 1991. At that time, Suu Kyi was detained by the military after leading a pro-democracy party to victory in Myanmar's 1990 election. The prize was picked up instead by her 18-year-old son Alexander. "I've been so exhausted preparing for the trip that I've had no time to think about how I'm going to feel about Oslo, but perhaps this evening I'll sit back and think about it," Suu Kyi told reporters after her speech to the U.N. labor office. The Geneva-based agency has long campaigned against forced labor in Myanmar, earning it a first stop on Suu Kyi's much-anticipated tour. The leader of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy stepped carefully around sensitive subjects such as the ethnic unrest brewing in her country's western Rakhine province. She said foreign investment must help — not hurt — Myanmar's goal of moving toward full democracy, referring to the exploitation of Myanmar's oil and gas riches, the subject of recent deals between the government and China. Western companies, too, have been eager to invest in the Southeast Asian nation as the sanctions it faced under military rule are gradually lifted. "Any new investment that comes in because of the lifting or suspension of sanctions should add to the democratic process rather than subtract from it," Suu Kyi said. Asked about the abuses committed by the junta during its decades-long rule, Suu Kyi struck a conciliatory note, citing fellow Nobel winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "At this moment, what I want most of all is reconciliation and not retribution," she said. She took the same high road when it came to her own suffering at the hands of the military, which barred her British husband from visiting her in Myanmar as he was dying from cancer. "In some ways I don't think they really did anything to me," she said. "I do not think I have anything to forgive them for."

Juny 15, 2012

Retrobar-se amb el món:
Aung San Suu Kyi segon dia a Europa

No és fàcil tornar al món i encara més a l'occidental. Aquesta dona fràgil d'aspecte i també de salut, però molt forta en les seves conviccions, ahir no va poder aguantar els símptomes del jet lag. Vint-i-quatre anys sense sortir de casa seva, i quan ha pogut sortir, viatjar dins el seu propi país, no gaire lluny de Yangon, és evident que no té el costum dels viatges llarguíssims en avió des d'Àsia a Europa i els canvis d'horaris. El viatge, l'arribada molt tard dimecres nit, ahir dijous, la conferència a l'OIT, roda de premsa, viatge en tren a Berna, recepció, nova conferència de premsa i .... ja no va poder aguantar més, i va demanar ajut a la seva assistent personal. La recepció abans del sopar es va poder fer amb la seva presència, però no va anar a sopar. Amb molt de goig deixo aquesta fotografia d'ella i Barbara Hendricks, una altra dona valenta, cantant excepcional, bona persona. (Tout au long de ma vie, je me suis encouragée à ouvrir les yeux et à avancer vers la lumière - Barbara Hendricks.) Ambaixadora de la UNHCR i des de La Fundació Barbara Hendricks que porta, fa costat per la causa dels refugiats de tot el món. La seva doctora, des de Yangon, ha manifestat que pateix per la seva agenda tan plena. La seva pacient té la tensió baixa i molt sovint té rodaments de cap, i s'ha de cuidar.
Ella no viatja en un avió privat medicalitzat, ni amb la seva doctora al seu costat, ni amb un servei de seguretat professional. Ja ho ha dit ... ni sóc presidenta de cap país, ni estic en cap govern, ni sóc treballadora, ni sóc empresària. Em podeu posar en el 5è element; sóc politica. Però la seva presència causa entusiasme i ella vol dir a Europa que no deixin el seu país aïllat, que entre tots, entre la gent, cal ajudar-los.
Desconeix les xarxes socials, la tecnologia, els mercats, seguretat personal, però aprendrà ràpid. Jo sempre ho penso i ho dic; els birmans que han estudiat, llegit dins i fora les seves presons, han desenvolupat un disc dur fantàstic, la seva ment, però els cal introduïr les aplicacions necessàries. No tenen problemes en fotografiar mentalment tot el que veuen i guardar tota classe d'informacions. Avui després d'una visita al Parlament de Suïssa, aquest govern li facilitarà un helicòpter per anar a Zürich i viatjar a Oslo on arribarà aquesta tarda. Podrà descansar i demà serà el gran dia en que recollirà personalment el Premi Nobel de la Pau atorgat l'any 1991. També a Oslo es trobarà amb centenars de birmans, refugiats polítics, i la redacció de Democratic Voice of Burma, que ha fet, està fent i ferà, una feina impagable per assolir novament la democràcia i les llibertats en el seu país.

December 18, 2011

Václav Havel: 5 oct 1936 - 18 dec 2011

September 26, 2011

Barbara Hendricks Joins IP Community
in Inauguration of New WIPO Building

Barbara Hendricks, one of the world’s leading opera singers and a best-selling recording artist, joined WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, high-level members of the Geneva and Swiss government, and the international intellectual property (IP) community tonight in inaugurating the new WIPO administration building . The new building, which looks onto Geneva’s Place des Nations, is the work of award-winning Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany.

Accompanied by internationally renowned pianist Love Derwinger, Mrs. Hendricks performed Manuel de Falla’s “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas” in the presence of some 900 guests including President of the State of Geneva Mark Muller, Geneva Mayor Pierre Maudet, lead architect Stefan Behnisch, as well as delegates attending the annual governing bodies of the Organization (meeting from September 26 to October 5, 2011), ambassadors and members of the Geneva diplomatic community.

“This is a special occasion in the history of our Organization and we are honored that it is distinguished by the presence of such an inspirational representative of the international artistic community, and one, moreover, who has demonstrated a tireless, life-long commitment to promoting development through the arts – a cause in which we share,” said Mr. Gurry. He paid tribute to Mrs. Hendricks’ work in support of refugees through the cultural foundation, Foundation Etoile d’Azur (Help with Art), and as an Honorary Ambassador for Life of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Following her musical performance, Mrs. Hendricks said it is an honor for her, as a representative of the artistic community, “to be here to help you inaugurate your new building with music because you are here to help us the artists, the creators, the scientists. Because without our rights, without the possibility to continue, there will be no more arts, there will be no more creativity, there will be no more civilization.”

In describing the new building, Mr. Gurry said it represents everything that an administration should aspire to being: “transparent and open.” Transparency, openness and movement are the defining characteristics of the new building, starting with the wave of color that flows around the façade in eleven shades of blue, through the three glass-roofed atria that are at the heart of the construction, and along the corridors and staircases encircling the atria that channel the movement of people. Mr. Gurry also thanked all involved in the construction project.

Mr. Behnisch, whose design was chosen from among 800 entries in an international architectural competition in 2000, underlined WIPO’s fundamental mission of promoting creativity and innovation through intellectual property. Linking this mission to the new construction, he said “I hope that it will be considered a piece of architecture . . . and something hopefully worthy of the Organization that protects intellectual property.”

Speaking on behalf of the host city, Mr. Muller said Geneva is committed to ensuring an environment in which international organizations can continue to expand and flourish. He said it was particularly important that WIPO is based in Geneva, considering the Organization’s mandate to promote innovation and creativity. He said Geneva was home to many innovation-based companies and organizations.

The new building consists of five floors of offices with some 500 work places, four underground levels, and a 300-seat cafeteria. Construction work began in April 2008 and was completed at the end of 2010. Staff moves into the new building were completed in the summer of 2011

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Section at WIPO:
Tel: (+41 22) - 338 81 61 or 338 95 47 Fax: (+41 22) - 338 82 80

December 5, 2012

The importance of Copyright:
Barbara Hendricks Brings Music to Inauguration Ceremony

Barbara Hendricks, one of the world’s leading opera singers and a best-selling recording artist, joined the intellectual property community in inaugurating the new WIPO building on September 26, 2011 with a recital of Manuel de Falla’s “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas,” accompanied by pianist Love Derwinger.

Ms. Hendricks said she was pleased to be part of the ceremony as a representative of the artistic community. It was an honor she said, “to be here to help you inaugurate your new building with music because you are here to help us the artists, the creators, the scientists. Because without our rights, without the possibility to continue, there will be no more arts, there will be no more creativity, there will be no more civilization.”

"[WIPO is] here to help us, the artists, the creators, the scientists. Because without our rights, there will be no more arts."

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed Barbara Hendricks as "an inspirational representative of the international artistic community, who has demonstrated a life-long commitment to promoting development through the arts – a cause in which we share.” He paid tribute to Ms. Hendricks’ work in support of refugees through the cultural foundation, Etoile d’Azur (Help with Art), and as an Honorary Ambassador for Life of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ms. Hendricks’ performance delighted delegates of WIPO’s member states, who were in Geneva for the WIPO Assemblies. “The fact that she was here is wonderful,” said South African delegate Tshihumbudzo Zane Ravhandalala. “By bringing music to the ceremony, Barbara Hendricks reminded policy makers in the IP community that their work is truly important by providing an environment where culture can flourish."

WIPO DG Francis Gurry thanks Barbara Hendricks
– "an inspirational representative of the international artistic community."
"We need art in our lives... it is the singular expression of our human condition.”

In a filmed interview for the WIPO You Tube channel, Ms. Hendricks told WIPO that artists need to earn a living from their work and that piracy - while not so prevalent in classical music - prevents many from doing so. “Quite a few artists that are getting downloaded for free are people who write and produce their own music and without revenue they can’t continue. So that means there will be no music to download soon because those artists will have to go out and work in an office or something.”

Paying artists for their music was a matter of respect and of fairness, she said. The opera diva described her own successful experiment in making her music available online and allowing users to decide whether - and how much - to pay for it. But artists' own choices should be respected. "If they want to give away their music freely, that's their priviledge," she said. "But they have a right to decide for themselves."

Barbara Hendricks concluded on an optimistic note on the challenges facing the music industry today. “I think we will be able to find solutions so that artists can continue to create and to represent what is so important for us as human beings," she said.

October 10, 2010

World Wide Humanitarian Campaign Etoile d'Azur   Help with Art

Today, on 10.10.10, Etoile d'Azur    Help with Art launches its new humanitarian campaign
 
Etoile d'Azur   Help with Art has chosen the date of 10.10.10 to launch in Geneva its new World Wide Humanitarian Campaign. The five pointed star does not change color but includes as a novelty in its series of cultural events: dance and light according to Wolfgang von Goethe's color theory. Under this new form, the opera will be presented to youth and the general public in collaboration with the Vienna State Opera, as well as the art of storytelling such as The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. It will also include classical concerts like those of the past editions which were attended by singers such as Renee Fleming, Cheryl Studer, Simon Estes, and Barbara Hendricks who says:

"I support Etoile d'Azur   Help with Art since President Vaclav Havel's invitation for the commemoration concert at Prague Castle. Through its activity Etoile d'Azur    Help with Art connects Art and artists to humanitarian organizations and associations as well as to acts of saving our Earth." - Barbara Hendricks.

World Wide Campagne Humanitaire Etoile d'Azur  Help with Art

Aujourd'hui, le 10.10.10, Etoile d'Azur    Help with Art lance sa nouvelle campagne humanitaire
 
Etoile d'Azur    Help with Art a choisi la date du 10.10.10 pour lancer à Genève sa nouvelle World Wide Campagne Humanitaire. L'étoile à cinq branches ne change pas de couleur mais inclut comme nouveauté dans sa série d'événements culturels: la danse et la lumière selon la théorie des couleurs de Wolfgang von Goethe.
Sous cette toute nouvelle forme, l'opéra sera presenté aux jeunes et au grand public en collaboration avec la Wiener Staatsoper, ainsi que l'art de raconter des histoires telle celle du Petit-Prince d'Antoine de Saint Exupéry. On y trouvera également des concerts classiques comme ceux des éditions passés auxquels ont participé des chanteurs tels que Renée Fleming, Cheryl Studer, Simon Estes et Barbara Hendricks qui affirme:
 
"Je soutiens Etoile d'Azur    Help with Art depuis l'invitation du Président Vaclav Havel pour le concert commémoratif au Château de Prague. Par son activité, Etoile d'Azur Help   with Art relie l'Art et ses artistes aux organisations et associations humanitaires ainsi qu'à des actes de sauvegarde de notre Terre." - Barbara Hendricks.