Hi, this is Michelle, and today we’re reporting on the first public address of the ICRC’s new boss, Mirjana Spoljaric, since taking office in October.

We’re also getting an update on ongoing plastics negotiations in Uruguay. Plus, cultural heritage can now be found in your nearest French bakery shop!

01.12.2022

On our radar

Mirjana Spoljaric during her first public address as president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the Graduate Institute Geneva, 28 November 28, 2022. (Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi)

‘We’re not an advocacy group’. Mirjana Spoljaric gave her first public speech as president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday in front of a room crowded with students and professors at the Graduate Institute’s Maison de la Paix. From Ukraine, to Afghanistan, to Somalia and Yemen, the ICRC’s first-ever female president will have to lead the humanitarian organisation through an unprecedented time of turmoil, amid increasing public scrutiny.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

Here’s what else is happening

🥖French baguette given UNESCO protection.
France24 (EN)
🥤Future global plastics treaty must cut production to ease pollution, some states say.
Reuters (EN)
💵Global wages fall in 2022 in real terms for first time on record, says ILO.
Financial Times (EN)
🇺🇳The UN’s top labour expert resumes work on ‘Our Common Agenda’ as controversy clouds World Cup.
PassBlue (EN)
💉Syria receives cholera vaccines ahead of inoculation drive.
AP (EN)

Image of the day

The Red Ribbon memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine, 30 November 2022. The red ribbon is the universal symbol of awareness and support for people living with HIV. (Keystone/Hennadii Minchenko / Avalon)

World Aids Day. Activists cover the Red Ribbon memorial in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with sandbags to protect it from possible destruction during Russian shelling on the eve of World Aids Day on 1 December. In a report launched ahead of World Aids Day today, UNAIDS warned that “dangerous inequalities” were pushing the world off track to end the disease as a public health threat by 2030. Discrimination, gender inequality and a treatment gap for children living with HIV were all weakening the Aids response, executive director Winnie Byanyima warned, calling for a global effort to tackle inequality. “Equalizing will not only help the marginalised,” she said. “It will help everyone.”

Geneva Solutions (EN)

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