nouvelles de notre association - aafi-afics - UNOG

for AAFI-AFICS by his exceptional efforts to build up a world-wide fellowship of all former international
officials. And he strove to make the Geneva community as coherent and unified as possible.
In the 90s, I participated in the turmoil provoked by what the other associations of former officials in Geneva
perceived as the AAFI-AFICS’ desire for hegemony. It was evident that it was in reality Aamir Ali’s effort to
build a united front, uncontested and universally accepted, so that former officials could negotiate their
material problems: pensions, health insurance, etc. He pressed this with considerable forcefulness though
not everyone shared his point of view. We lived through some tense times in the ‘Coordinating Committee’
that he so wanted !
But if Aamir was the theologian of unification, he also knew the art of compromise. He knew how to make
himself heard, but also how to listen. Working with him, we found formulas which defused the tensions. As
a first step, he provided for regular and constant consultation with representatives of the other associations,
enabling them to participate fully in the AAFI-AFICS Committee. He then formalized this arrangement by
revising the Statutes in 2000. There was the poisoned question of membership of FAFICS. Applications
were submitted by the associations of the ILO and WHO; they were rejected. This thorny question was
satisfactorily solved in 1998 by the decision that whenever these associations wanted, their representatives
would be included in the AAFI-AFICS delegation and have the status of full participants. I am proud to have
participated actively in working out this solution.
Over the years, Aamir directed our basic activities with realism and effectiveness; these were oriented
towards our ‘bread and butter’ needs – pensions, health insurance schemes, the meetings necessary to
maintaining the cohesion of our association. But he never missed an occasion to remind us in his speeches
and his articles in the Bulletin, that man – and still more an international civil servant even if retired – does
not live by bread alone, that he cannot and must not forget the ideals for which the family of the UN works. I
hereby ask him to continue to help us in making sure that we never desert this objective.
Ed.Ch: You seem to be speaking of Aamir Ali as if he was your immediate predecessor. Do you feel
yourself closer to him than to Anders Tholle at the time that you’re taking over the presidency?
J.-J.C: Not at all ! In fact I feel very close to them both. Each succeeded, in his own way, in steering our
ship quite remarkably. What’s more, Aamir Ali has never left the Committee of the Association of which he
became the Honorary Chairman. Just as Anders will continue to participate, though without any honorary title
in spite of our insistence. I am well placed to measure and appreciate the work carried out - and being
carried out - by my two predecessors; how can I not continue and build on this? With their help and support,
naturally.
Anders Tholle also has a strength of character and deep convictions, doubtless fortified by his many years in
UN peace-keeping operations. These were, by definition in difficult regions and in uncomfortable situations.
He knows at first hand what hardship is, and a large part of his work with AAFI-AFICS was devoted to
establishing and improving ways to help the most vulnerable of our colleagues. To him we owe the
consolidation of social work for our members, begun with Chantal Mannaert and continued this year by Nana
Leigh, part-time social counsellor of AAFI-AFICS.
We owe him gratitude also for his consistent efforts to persuade the organizations to recognize the need for
long-term care. This is intended for persons severely handicapped by age, illness, or serious accidents (and
does not apply only to retired persons). We speak elsewhere in this Bulletin of the need to harmonize
benefits paid by different health insurance schemes in Geneva.
Finally, I would like to offer thanks to Anders Tholle for all the initiatives he took to increase the membership
of our Association (a net addition of over 300 members in three years), and the rapprochement with the
sister associations in Geneva. In April 2003, he took the initiative of welcoming life members from the sister
associations and proposing a special reduced contribution; this was a significant gesture.
Ed. Ch: Could not the enumeration of these results give the impression that the Association has attained its
cruising speed and that there is nothing left to do except to see that we don’t lose what we have acquired?
J.-J. C: It would be a mistake to rest on our oars; such results are never final and often prove false.
Moreover, it will surely not have escaped anyone that the UN system - and the UN itself – is at present in
the eye of the international political storm. We, the community of former officials (about 52,000 retirees in
the world of whom 3,300 are members of AAFI-AFICS) must be ardent advocates of the action of the
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