A climate protest in San Francisco, United States, 2019. (Li-An Lim/Unsplash)

🌏 Cop28’s tipping points and search for solutions. The flurry of scientific reports published ahead of Cop28 makes it clear that countries are far from doing enough to keep global warming from moving into unchartered climate territory. Will known solutions to the challenge be taken seriously this time around?

🇨🇦 At UN rights review, Canada slammed over controversial oil project. Indigenous groups across the Americas say Canada’s worded commitments to climate action and human rights are contradicted by its failure to hold the extractive sector accountable for activities abroad.

🎶 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 creators debunk the legal jargon around getting paid and credited for their work.

📈 As tensions escalate over Israel-Gaza war, can Geneva come out unscathed? Conflict in the Middle East is pushing the international community to its limits. As faultlines deepen, Geneva also faces a litmus test.

🔎 ‘Internal dysfunctions’ plague Geneva foundation. 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.

Tatiana Molcean took up her post as executive secretary at the UNECE on 1 September 2023. (Geneva Solutions/Kasmira Jefford)

🤝🏻 Tatiana Molcean: UNECE countries face ‘new realities’ as Israel-Gaza war sends ripples across region. Joining at a fragile time for multilateral diplomacy and amid increasing conflicts, the new executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said she wants to see less competition between UN agencies and more cooperation.

💧 Pedro Arrojo Agudo: water should be a blue flag for peace, not a weapon of war. In an interview during Geneva Peace Week, the UN special rapporteur on the human right to water and sanitation called for water to be turned into a catalyst for peace as the world teeters on the edge of global war.

November’s busy calendar was reflected in the number of high-quality commentaries we received and published across an array of topics – from health to climate to peace.

💰 Writing just ahead of the agreement by countries at Cop28 to set up a loss and damage fund, Ciel senior campaigner and senior attorney, Lien Vandamme and Joie Chowdhury, remind us that the UN climate regime has still delivered little by way of remedy and reparations to countries on the frontlines of climate change despite their obligations under human rights law.

🧫 Dialogues during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week that took place last month boiled down to one message: time is running out to preserve one of the most powerful tools of modern medicine, writes Neda Milevska Kostova, chair of global patient alliance IAPO.

🔮 Speaking at the Gesda summit in October and republished by Geneva Solutions, former French diplomat Jean-Marie Guéhenno, who also led the UN’s peace operations, argues that how we control technological advancements will define our ability to prevent war and build peaceful societies.

🔤 Meanwhile, staying on the topic of war, Françoise Duroch at Médecins Sans Frontières asks whether we are using the right terms to describe the situation in Gaza.

🎂 And as ChatGPT turned one last week, DiploFoundation founding director Jovan Kurbalija writes that AI’s monumental advances are a reminder of the role Geneva can play in resolving conflicts in our digitally interconnected world.

Demonstrators carry a puppet depicting a prisoner with the face of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe during a demonstration with the slogan "SOS Colombia" in Madrid on May 15 2021. (Keystone/AFP/Gabriel Boys)

⚖️ Europe does not have a monopoly on extra-territorial justice. As criminal complaints related to the Israel-Gaza conflict filed before European national courts, as well as the International Criminal Court, multiply, another significant case taking place in Argentina is a reminder that one continent does not have the monopoly on justice for international crimes, write Civitas Maxima’s Alain Werner and Leah Sade Olasehinde in this month’s round-up of international justice news, in collaboration with Geneva Solutions.

7-8 December | Geneva Graduate Institute launches Upskill series. The Geneva Graduate Institute has launched the Upskill Series as part of its Executive Education offer, with a short course on Artificial Intelligence: A Strategic Asset for Diplomacy and Organisations that will take place on 7 and 8 December 2023 in Geneva.

This two-day course, developed by Jérôme Duberry, managing director of the Tech Hub and academic advisor of its Executive Programme on Diplomacy, Negotiation and Policy, gives you a deep understanding of AI and how to harness its power for diplomacy and organisations.