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)

🏗️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.

🪧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.

⚖️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.

Reading between the lines as WHO, UN attempt crackdown on sexual misconduct. After years of inadequate response to sexual abuse scandals, UN institutions are responding by installing new managers and setting up investigative commissions and websites to keep track of reports. But will shifting personnel, dedicated budgets and new databases be enough?

Swiss Red Cross cleaning house amid leadership crisis. Since the end of 2022, Switzerland’s biggest aid organisation at the heart of an emblematic global movement has been making the headlines for the wrong reasons.

‘Internal dysfunctions’ plague Geneva foundation, labour watchdog intervenes. Amid conflicting departures and high staff turnover denounced internally, employees of the Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance turn to the canton’s labour watchdog for help.

Global Red Cross elects new president amid row over sexual harassment claims. American Red Cross’s Kate Forbes was elected as the next president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies despite clashes between the body’s governing board and national societies that almost derailed the process.

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)

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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)

✂️ICRC announces more job cuts, unveils four year plan.

🚦Amber light or north star? Cop28 agrees on ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels

🌳Carbon markets require rights focus, say NGOs at Cop28

👩‍💻Conflicts and humanitarian crises heighten cyber threats for Geneva’s NGOs

🏚️‘We are not learning’: war in Gaza casts shadow over celebration of genocide convention

🩺‘We cannot even think of what is coming next,’ MSF chief says as catastrophe in Gaza deepens

✋🏼Humanitarian staffers in Geneva call for Gaza-Israel ceasefire in open letter

🎗️Breaking the burden of silence: French tale of HIV/Aids by Anthony Passeron

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.

How much substance is there to the UN’s gender parity goal? In recent years, the United Nations has made gender parity one of its institutional priorities. But are numbers enough to ensure that women's representation is taking place?

Swiss solidarity: is aid reaching Ukraine fast enough? Nearly one year after the start of Russia’s invasion, concerns were raised that Swiss contributions to Ukraine were not being deployed fast enough.

Neurotech: should our brains have rights? As technology unlocks the doors to our minds, scientists are warning diplomats of the nuclear-scale dangers of it falling into the wrong hands.

Is Switzerland dragging its feet in criminalising torture? The nation doesn’t have a clause in its laws punishing torture as a specific criminal offence, an omission that has long vexed rights groups and UN experts, who have renewed their calls for an update to the laws.

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)

Mosquito-to-toe: the race to contain climate-sensitive disease. As climate change drives temperatures up, offering the perfect cosy conditions for mosquitoes to thrive and move to new places, organisations are exploring new ways to prevent them from spreading dengue and other climate-sensitive diseases.

WIPO helps musicians get the record straight on their rights. A digital platform launched by the World Intellectual Property Organization and a foundation backed by Abba legend Björn Ulvaeus wants to help musicians, and other artists debunk the legal jargon around getting paid and credited for their work.

Can Geneva herald the way for a quantum revolution? Cern and Gesda’s plans to open in Geneva a quantum institute accessible to everyone seem to be taking shape. While the initiative holds promise, the idealism behind it may face challenges in an era of intense global competition.

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.

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.

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.