The concert

“Concert for Peace and Human Rights”

Geneva, 10 December 2014

The year 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, the 75th of the start of the Second World War, the 70th of the creation of the UN and the 5th of the inauguration of Room XX. Despite having reached the fifth anniversary of Room XX, during this time no-one had yet proposed the staging of a cultural event in the Human Rights Room. A suggestion was made to the Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva to organise a concert of broad cultural diversity in the Room on 10 December, World Human Rights Day. 
At this concert, the great Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez would be accompanied by the South African soprano Pretty Yende, the Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, the Russian bass Sergey Artamonov and the Spanish conductor-pianist Pablo Mielgo. In addition to these renowned performers, the conductor Mr Pablo Mielgo brought together an orchestra comprising fifty of the best musicians from the System of Youth Orchestras, which assembles talented musicians who have endured a difficult childhood and have found in music a way forward towards their social integration. 
300 seats were reserved in Room XX for the Representatives from the 192 countries working at the United Nations, Directors of Geneva-based International Bodies as well as representatives from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and a further 300 for guests of the Foundation, among them its most relevant patrons.