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La délocalisation annoncée d’OCHA tombera comme un couperet en 2021
Le personnel dans la tourmente subit anxiété, insécurité de l’emploi et peur du lendemain. Pour le personnel du Bureau de la Coordination des Affaires humanitaires des Nations Unies (OCHA), 2021 risque d’être encore plus pénible que 2020 : postes supprimés, départs...
New Year brings new controls on plastic waste and more local, national and global action
Approximately 50 tonnes of plastic enter Lake Geneva every year, according to a study commissioned by the Association for the Safeguard of Lake Léman [1]. Most of this waste comes in the form of particles from tyres brought by runoff water, followed by discarded...
Ms Adversity, let’s go for a walk.
In line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (including #3: Good Health and Well-Being, #9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and #10: Reduced Inequality), and in the month of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I would...
Would you want to work in the UN of the future?
Last month, a report from a management task force on the future of work at the UN caused considerable consternation among staff with a proposal for new, agile staff contracts. We asked two of those responsible for the report for their views on the future of work both...
Just brew it: 100 Coffees for Inclusion at the International Trade Centre
Inclusion fatigue? Have some coffee! How we stimulated diversity discussions at the International Trade Centre by talking to 100 employees. At the Caribbean region’s recent musical celebration of the United Nation’s 75th Anniversary, Barbadian superstar Rihanna said...
Can diplomacy work online?
This article contains some brief observations, based mainly on recent formal and informal meetings that I serviced and/or attended at the Palais des Nations, as well as on discussions with colleagues and delegates on their experience with ’online diplomacy‘ in the...
What is it like to interpret a remote meeting?
Teamwork is turning it into a success, but what do interpreters make of Remote Simultaneous Interpretation (RSI)? Before the pandemic, interpreters’ experience of RSI was sporadic and invariably negative. It was often sprung on them unannounced and involved sound...
Larbi Djacta, ICSC Chair: I am making the ICSC more transparent
UN Today recently met with Larbi Djacta, the Chair of the International Civil Service Commission, the body that recommends our salaries and conditions of service.You were elected chair of the ICSC, two years ago, at a time when the credibility of the Commission and...
What the Staff Council has been doing for you
Town hall on Equal Pay In early August we organized a town hall on Equal Pay, where we invited an OSLA lawyer to make a brief presentation following the judgement of the UN Dispute Tribunal, to explain on the grounds to appeal the judgement to the UN Appeals Tribunal....
On Her Majesty’s Service
Julian Braithwaite, the UK’s permanent representative talks about dealing with Brexit, online meetings, UN funding, explaining his work to an audience back home and cocktail parties. When Julian Braithwaite arrived in Geneva five years ago as the UK’s permanent...
I grew up with the mountains. International Mountain Day matters to me
This year International Mountain Day celebrates biodiversity. As a mountaineer and environmental expert, Andrea Cararo tells UN Today why this day matters to him and why it should to all of us. Since I was a kid, I have always been a nature and outdoor enthusiast. I...
Michelle Bachelet on her motivations, achievements and human rights during Covid
On 10 December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day. We have asked Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to share her views and insights. Your role as High Commissioner receives a lot of attention, and also criticism, given the sensitivity...
Geneva’s public transportation in a pandemic world
Interview with Anne Hornung-Soukup, Chair of the Board, TPG (transports publics genevois). How has the tpg adjusted to a pandemic world? When Covid-19 reached Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Government stated clearly that public transport was an essential service which...
La Suisse romande à l’épreuve de la COVID-19
Pour le Président de la Fédération des entreprises de Suisse romande, Ivan Slatkine, le pragmatisme du gouvernement a amorti l’impact de la Covid19 sur l’économie mais le modèle d’affaires genevois doit évoluer, et il faut éviter les mesures extrêmes prises par les...
What I learned at the UN in four lessons
All and each one of my forty years of professional life were devoted to multilateral cooperation, including serving at UNCTAD from 1999 to 2014, when I retired and decided, stubbornly, to continue defending the same UN cause. I learned more than what I brought to the...
From the Pandemic to the League of Cities: an interview with Lord Foster, Architect, Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners and President of the Norman Foster Foundation
On 6 October Lord Foster opened the first UN Forum of Mayors at the Palais des Nations, with an inspirational and optimistic speech on how COVID-19, and pandemics in general, have shaped our cities, often accelerating positive transformations. UNToday had the...
Remembering Quino, creator of Mafalda, the girl who wanted to join the UN
¡Paren el mundo que me quiero bajar! Although for many years this famous sentence has been wrongly attributed to Mafalda, it fits the purpose for the beginning of our story. For indeed on September 30th the world stopped to let Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón - Quino by...
Hip and knee replacement: benefits of computer-assisted surgery
Hip and knee replacements are among the most commonly performed orthopedic procedures and their number continues to grow worldwide. Significant improvements in implant design and materials have been observed over the past decade. However, surgical technique and...
University of Geneva launches new certifying course in strategic and operational philanthropy
UNIGE launches new executive education courses to certify professional knowledge in strategic and operational philanthropy in 2021. The University of Geneva will launch a new course in strategic and operational philanthropy in autumn 2021, resulting from the...
Quelques idées pour acheter local et en ligne
La crise de la CODIV-19 et le confinement ont bousculé nos habitudes de consommation. Face à cette situation, il est plus que jamais important d’acheter local. Plusieurs initiatives de soutien aux entreprises et producteurs locaux ont vu le jour. Consommer local,...
Editor’s Note – December 2020
This is my last edition as Editor-in-Chief of UN Today and I want to express my appreciation to all of you, our readers, for your permanent support to our editorial efforts at the UN in Geneva. Before this strange year 2020, I had the privilege of serving as...
L’impact bien réel du mécanisme de plaintes des organes conventionnels de l’ONU : « une évolution positive, largement »
« Un mécanisme presque juridictionnel - même s’il n’est pas une cour internationale – qui fonctionne comme une cour ». C’est ainsi qu’Anna Batalla, juriste au Haut-Commissariat aux droits de l’homme, définit le mécanisme de plaintes associé aux organes de traités de...
His abilities. Their disabilities.
When the rights of persons with disabilities are secured, the world gets closer to upholding the core values and principles of the United Nations Charter. Last year the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy was launched by the Secretary-General, enabling the UN...
Geneva Marks 100 Years of Multilateralism and Looks to the Next 100 Years
UN Geneva and partners celebrate the centenary of modern multilateralism with a series of activities. Evolution of global cooperation in the Swiss city is highlighted. COVID-19 reinforces the need for multilateral problem-solving. Creative solutions bring lessons of...
Fighting racism internationally starts with confronting racism internally
Leadership Starts at Home The world desperately needs UN leadership to combat systemic racism. That cannot happen without tackling the systemic racism within the organization. Systemic racism normalized inside institutions normalizes inequality and violence This...
How Racist Is the UN?
Back in June, Antonio Guterres told a staff townhall that “if racism exists anywhere, it also exists in the UN.” But how racist is the UN? And in an international organization, with staff from all quarters, what is racism? Let’s start back in 1945. The UN was founded...
Racisme, retour au pire ?
Historienne de la littérature du XIXe siècle, Nicole Savy, a travaillé sur les stéréotypes racistes et antisémites. Elle a exercé des responsabilités nationales à la Ligue française des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen. Les comportements racistes sont-ils récents ou...
Nos suggestions de lecture sur le racisme
Le chant des revenants Jesmyn Ward Pivot du roman, Jojo, 13 ans, vit dans une petite ville du Mississipi. Il est né d’un homme blanc, Michael, et d’une femme noire, Léonie. Accro à la cocaïne, sa mère ne se remet pas de l’assassinat de son frère, Given dont le spectre...
100 ans de multilatéralisme à Genève
100 ans de multilatéralisme à Genève est un coffret indispensable. Il permettra aux lecteurs de trouver un ensemble d’informations à la hauteur de l’importance du sujet traité. Tatiana Valovaya, directrice générale de l'Office européen des Nations Unies, rappelle dans...
Advocating labour standards in the neoliberal era
I worked for the International Labour Organization (ILO) from 1986 to 2001. I started at the ILO’s International Institute for Social Studies in charge of a research programme called “Labour Institutions and New Industrial Organization”. A major focus of the work was...
Lynn Nottage, playwright and screenwriter
Lynn Nottage writes about those left behind and is the first and only female playwright and a screenwriter to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama ….twice! What do you see as the root causes of racism in today societies, in particular in the USA, and the reasons of...
Why tobacco control is important during COVID‑19 pandemic ?
Tobacco should be considered a pandemic – a slow-motion pandemic – that adds its lethal features to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.The harmful effects of tobacco on human health have been well documented, but people are not often aware of the extent of that harm. It is...
Quand une sculpture vaut mille mots
S’il fallait choisir un mot pour parler de l’œuvre du sculpteur Sandrine Plante, Cri serait le terme le plus approprié. Un cri, viscéral, puissant qui traverse les corps de terre, défigure les visages, interpelle les visiteurs. C’est le cri de millions d’humains...
A call for action
Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence for Philanthropy As AI is bound to transform the philanthropic sector what urgent issues need to be addressed to ensure its ethical and impactful use? Artificial Intelligence (AI) broadly consists in making machines do...
Movember : a month dedicated to male health
Every year during the month of November, men are invited to grow a moustache. The objective of movember (contraction of “moustache” and “November”) ? Raise awareness about male health among the general public and collect donations which will be used for research into...
The “Escalade” celebration, a symbolic tradition in Geneva
The history of the "Escalade" The Escalade (scaling the defensive wall) is an annual celebration of the Protestant Genevan people’s victory over the Catholic Duke of Savoy’s surprise attack on the rich, independent and liberal Republic of Geneva during the darkest...
Calvin in America
A Unique Virtual Experience ! Temporary exhibition at the International Museum of the Reformation until February 28th, 2021 In November 1620, the passengers and crew of the Mayflower reached the coast of Massachusetts and established a colony there. Among them were...
Remembering Victims on the Roads in the time of COVID-19
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims The year 2020 has seen unprecedented events. The COVID-19 crisis has brought grief and financial difficulties to many, and tremendous changes to the daily lives of us all. But it is during these times of great...
Photos of the month: United for our goals
Mayors & Ambassadors. Scoring the Sustainable Development goals Let's get moving for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)! The Forum of Mayors 2020 brought together last October mayors and diplomats on a football field. City leaders and Geneva-based...
The new frontier of human rights
Empowering the UN Human Rights Office with a digital view In this November edition, the UN Human Rights Office and Microsoft share insights from their 5-year partnership and its concrete outcomes. Promoting and protecting the human rights since 1993 Since its creation...
Editor’s Note – November 2020
Whether you stand out at work for the colour of your skin, or even if you don’t but care about the present and future, this edition of UN Today is for you. We know that racism is everywhere, and also in Europe, in Switzerland and at our offices in Geneva. It’s an...
How life has changed in my 32 years at the Palais
In the first article of this series, UN Today asks Cathy Peck Arif to look back over her 32 years at the Palais (although she’s not near retirement yet) and tell us how things have changed, for the better or for the worse.
Personalized cancer treatment and patient care with the latest medical advances
Personalized cancer treatment and patient care with the latest medical advances. Interview with Dr Oscar Matzinger, FMH Specialist in Radio-oncology at Clinique de Genolier. Radiation oncology consists of the locoregional management of different cancer types. It uses...
Agenda culturel d’octobre
JazzContreBand 01 - 27 octobre 2020 https://jazzcontreband.com Au-delà d’un festival dédié à la musique jazz, c’est un événement phare dans le paysage culturel franco-suisse. Avec plus de 70 concerts en Suisse et en France, près de 200 artistes, 1 tremplin et 1...
De Nuremberg en 1946 à Genève en 2020: La vie longue et multiple d’un ancien de l’ONU
C’est difficile de résumer une longue vie. Ce n’est pas la durée de la vie qui complique l’exercice, mais les surprises, les défis, les opportunités qui me guettaient constamment et changeaient son cours à tour de rôle. Un parcours sinueux et divers J’ai eu la chance...
3 Questions to Ian Richards
Former President of CCISUA and Economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)You have been in the staff representation since 2009 and have occupied many functions such as Executive Secretary of the Staff Coordinating Council, the Vice...
Photos of the month: October 2020. UN75 United Nations’s staff. 75 Years Serving the Organisation
Paix et stabilité: La Suisse et l’ONU, des partenaires de dialogue fiables
La Charte des Nations Unies a été signée il y a 75 ans, lors de la Conférence de San Francisco. Quand, venus des quatre coins du globe, les délégués se réunirent à cette fin au printemps 1945, le monde était bien différent de celui que nous connaissons...
The UN at 75 – Resurrecting the Security Council’s Responsibility
On 21 April, the UN Association of the United Kingdom and the Together First campaign launched an important report by Mona Ali Khalil*, a respected public international lawyer and former Senior Legal Officer of the UN Office of the Legal Counsel.In the report, Mona...
There is no alternative to Multilateralism in the 21st Century
Let us make no mistake: we are at an unprecedented defining moment in history which requests our utmost attention, whether we are citizens or leaders.We have all become forever interdependent First of all, the world population skyrocketed from 2.4 billion to over 7.8...
