Queen Mathilde in New York

Last week, Queen Mathilde was in New York to attend the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit, “Architects for a Better World”.

On September 18th, the Queen participated in a side event co-hosted by UNICEF and Global Compact Belgium with the theme ‘Children’s rights are everyone’s business’. “I am delighted to see that my country, Belgium, is a frontrunner in mobilising the business community on children’s rights”, she said in her speech.

Talking about the role of the Global Compact Network, the Queen said, “This network has become one of the most dynamic national networks worldwide on children’s rights and business principles.”

The Global Compact Network is a United Nations initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, established in 2000.

The following day, Queen Mathilde met the United Nations General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon, before attending the 68th session of the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit at the United Nations headquarters.

In the evening, she was present at the UN Global Compact Leaders Dinner at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). During her last day in New York, on September 20th, Queen Mathilde visited a Magritte exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) with the Belgian Vice-Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. The exhibition, called “Magritte: the mystery of the ordinary, 1926-1938”, is dedicated to Belgian painter René Magritte (1898-1967), and focuses on the Surrealist years of René Magritte.

The exhibition will be open from September 28 to January 12, 2014 and it brings together eighty paintings, collages and objects, but also photographs, periodicals or commercial works for the period 1926 to 1938.

Filed under Belgium
Tagged Ban Ki-Moon, Exhibition, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, UNICEF, United Nations, United States of America, Working Visit.