Good afternoon, this is Kasmira, with your June highlights from International Geneva, which was back to doing one of the things Switzerland does best this month (aside football!) – the diplomatic art of hospitality – after the Biden-Putin summit sent the city into a fever of activity.
While the world has moved on, whether the meeting qualifies as a success in smoothing US-Russia relations will still depend on what happens in the coming months. In the meantime, it has set the tone for other political encounters, with Moscow and Beijing reinforcing their friendship with the second meeting in a month this week.
Back in Geneva, all eyes are on the Human Rights Council taking place until 13 July. And we also caught up with The Graduate Institute's global health expert Suerie Moon for a debrief on last month's World Health Assembly. |
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This week in International Geneva
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A protester wears a facemask picturing deposed leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi. (EPA / Kimimasa Mayama)
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❗ Myanmar debate dominates Human Rights Council opening session.
The UN’s top human rights body kicked off its 47th session in Geneva last week with a tense debate over Myanmar, which hasn’t been represented at the body since the 1 February military coup. This came days after the UN general assembly passed a rare resolution condemning the coup and calling for an arms embargo amid growing pressure from the international community.
by Pip Cook (EN)
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🇺🇳 A shy council.
For years rights groups have been calling for the Human Rights Council to appoint a special rapporteur to look at the human rights implications of climate change. While the proposal has gained backing by dozens of countries in the last years, many member states are opposed to increasing scrutiny on their governments. A draft resolution determining how the council will address the climate issue for the following year is expected to be submitted by 2 July.
by Michelle Langrand (EN)
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Here's what else we’re talking about
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Geneva’s International Environment House a few days before its inauguration in 1999. (Keystone/Martial Trezzini)
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🌱 International Geneva, a hub for environmental governance?
International Geneva has played a key role in shaping global policy for the environment but has yet to emerge as the world’s environmental hub. A scattered framework and little space for civil society to interact with instruments might be to blame. However, as rights groups find other multilateral spaces in Geneva to make their voices heard, Geneva could gain more prominence in environmental matters in the coming years.
by Michelle Langrand (EN)
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🤝 Repurposing trade policy for the 21st century.
“What we have to do over the next decade is to fight, with the same rules and the same will, against inequality and to have a bigger voice for developing countries but also to realise that development is in motion." UNCTAD's acting secretary general Isabelle Durant talks to Geneva Solutions on repurposing the UN's trade and development body for the 21st century. Geneva Solutions
by Kasmira Jefford (EN)
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⚕️💪Ending the pandemic needs political courage.
The seventy-fourth session of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which ended on 1 June, had an ambitious agenda. Still, there were over 30 resolutions adopted ranging on health topics from eye care to diabetes. Speaking to professor Suerie Moon of the Graduate Institute's Global Health Centre, she tells Geneva Solutions what she would like to see happen in the post-WHA era.
by Pokuaa Oduro-Bonsrah (EN)
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Highlights from Biden-Putin summit
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