The Symposium is held each September during the High-level Debate of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Symposium is named in honour the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Norwegian lawyer and politician Trygve Halvdan Lie.
The Symposium was inaugurated in September 2008, following the opening of the International Peace Institute’s Trygve Lie Center for Peace, Security & Development.
The event is co-hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Peace Institute (IPI). The high-level Symposium is held in September during the week of the High-Level Debate of the UN’s General Assembly. The Symposium has attracted ministerial level participation from a number of countries, including Argentina, France, Indonesia, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and the United States.
The Symposium addresses a wide range of topics that occupy a prominent place on the international agenda. The objective is to explore ways in which the international community can strengthen its promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The speakers include foreign ministers and human rights defenders as well as prominent experts from academia and representatives from civil society. The audience usually consist of permanent representatives to the United Nations, senior officials from the UN Secretariat, government officials, representatives from various international institutions, academic institutions and research organizations, media and members of the broader diplomatic community in New York.