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Hello, this is Paula. In a year that has seen aid and development agencies under rising budgetary strains, international Geneva has had firsthand experience, with many of its actors forced to reassess priorities while addressing inherent governance issues.
A growing list of conflicts coupled with increasing tensions between countries has also cast a long shadow over the year and seeped into every diplomatic fora – as seen as the Human Rights Council debate over Sudan and the conflict in the Middle East. In an unprecedented move, aid workers, too, have stepped out of their agencies’ shadows to take a stance.
Meanwhile, as artificial intelligence sped into people's lives, some organisations embraced new technologies while others joined together in an attempt to regulate potentially adverse effects.
Climate change took centre stage in actions across Geneva’s ecosystem with scientific reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, tolling agency bells, ahead of the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai. At the Human Rights Council, the United States tried to keep countries from confirming the right to a clean and healthy environment, while WWF’s new boss and others stressed why nature mattered. Climate leaders from the global south met with the private finance representatives, stressing why their chronic indebtedness was toxic for all.
In today's round-up, we've picked a selection of the more than 400 original stories we wrote over the past 12 months. These include profiles, interviews, op-eds and lots of other coverage, including a follow-up on a fund intended to bring relief to Afghanistan, an investigation into the challenges of getting Swiss aid into Ukraine, and we asked why gender equity may still be an afterthought in parts of the UN.
We’ll be back on Wednesday 3 January. In the meantime, we hope you can snuggle up to enjoy some quality reading ⬇️ and that your holidays are restful. |
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A rendition of the proposed ITU headquarters building, which the agency was due to commence work on in 2023 but have since put on hold. (ITU/Christian Dupraz Architecture Office)
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🏗️ITU rethinks plans for Geneva headquarters.
As a former business reporter covering the ins and outs of the London real estate market, there’s something about property stories that pique my curiosity. Static and seemingly inanimate, buildings can tell you so much more about the life and organisation behind the facade.
In this case, the ITU’s headquarters tell the story of a stalled project and a funding squeeze that has been affecting many UN agencies and international organisations since the Covid crisis, and of donors stretched thin under mounting humanitarian and development needs. It’s also the story of the ITU’s historical presence in Geneva and its quest to build a new state-of-the-art home fit for an agency dealing in technological innovation and digitalisation.
Kasmira Jefford & Maurizio Arseni
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🪧When upholding human rights fails, can the UN respond to SOS?
After violence began to erupt in December 2022 at anti-government rallies in Peru, the UN human rights office took centre stage as rights defenders came to denounce killings of unarmed protesters, followed by a UN expert submitting a report about violations of freedom of expression and assembly and a reminder of a UN technical cooperation pact amid mounting abuses.
But what use are such agreements when governments are in denial? This story was part of my series on the violence in a country close to me, that included on-the-ground reporting from the secret shelters where Médecins Sans Frontières assisted Indigenous protesters who had come to the capital, Lima, seeking justice despite the risks.
Paula Dupraz-Dobias
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⚖️Amid Guatemala’s faltering democracy, a battle to remember its painful past.
Activists from all over travel kilometres to come to Geneva on the off chance that their story will resonate with diplomats, UN officials, or even journalists whose voices might be able to tip the scale in their favour. Some of them stay with you more than others.
Like Paulo Estrada Velásquez, a Guatemalan anthropologist who made it his mission to bring to justice those responsible for disappearing his father and tens of thousands more during Guatemala’s brutal civil war. His poignant life story, told with sprinkles of dark humour, reminded me that amid the doom and gloom that we cover daily, it is people’s courage and determination that makes my job feel like it's worth it.
Michelle Langrand
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Behind the diplomatic scenes
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⭐Sit-down with newsmakers
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Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in her office, 27 November 2023. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)
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Rebeca Grynspan:
“We demonstrated that smart diplomacy can work. Over one year, 33 million tonnes of food left Ukrainian ports. This was very important for everybody, yielding important results in stabilising markets, bringing prices down and helping to avoid a lot of people falling into hunger.”
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Mirjana Spoljaric:
“Morally, I must admit that I have a hard time digesting the current events that the international community should never tolerate. It must be clear: humanitarians will not solve problems that require real political commitment.”
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Francesco Rocca:
“It is important that human lives come back at the centre of the discussion. When incubators are switched off because someone is cutting the electricity, we cannot (stay silent) due to the risk of being accused of being antisemitic or Islamophobic or whatever.”
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Kirsten Schuijt:
“No matter which country we work in, we have to make sure that the people who live and work in the places that we're trying to conserve are empowered and sit at the table when we design our work and when we execute our work.”
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Climate activists at Cop28 in Dubai in December, waving watermelon signs in the colours of the Palestinian flag, which like all flags was banned in accordance with United Nations climate change event rules. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)
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Where are Ukraine’s grains going?
Russia and Ukraine’s grain deal has become a political football as tensions rise between the two countries on the battlefield and in information wars. Speaking to experts and wading through data, we find out where shipments are going and how they are getting there.
Paula Dupraz-Dobias
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Edgard Boquín, a project leader working with Médecins sans Frontières holds a glass jar filled with mosquitoes before their release in neighbourhoods rife with dengue in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 22 August 2023. (Keystone/AP Photo/Elmer Martínez)
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IOM’s new leadership should end complicity with Syrian repression.
A crucial monitoring programme tracking the forced displacement of millions of Syrians was quietly cut by the International Organization for Migration. One of the first priorities of the UN agency’s new boss should be to reinstate it, writes war zone clinician Annie Sparrow.
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Why loss & damage fund alone will not redress climate harm.
Compensating countries that have suffered huge losses and irreparable damage from climate change is an obligation under human rights law that states, in particular wealthy nations, are still doing little to address, write Ciel’s Lien Vandamme and Joie Chowdhury ahead of Cop28.
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AI Diplomacy: what vision for the future of multilateralism?
The integration of AI in diplomacy brings with it exciting prospects but also significant risks that could compromise the very essence of diplomatic practice, writes the Graduate Institute’s Dr Jérôme Duberry.
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GS news is a new media project covering the world of international cooperation and development. Don’t hesitate to forward our newsletter!
Have a good day!
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