Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva
Part of30th November 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
The terror that stalked the music halls of Paris and the virus from Africa that reached the streets of Houston have something important in common. They both originated in fragile or failing states. Just as the refugees risking everything and the children facing famine are victims of this same fragility. The British Government published three […]
16th November 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
How can Geneva help Paris? I was going to write this week about antimicrobial resistance, the stealthily spreading obsolescence of antibiotics that will cost the world an estimated 10 million lives a year by 2050 if we don’t act now. But after Friday, that somehow didn’t feel right. With over 130 mostly young people massacred […]
2nd November 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Last week was the Week of Women in Britain. A British news magazine went as far as running a front page saying that the battle for feminism had been won, and it it was time to move on. But has it, really? I was good at biology at school. But I kept on coming second […]
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19th October 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Last week Geneva was overrun by humanitarian NGOs, activists, international organisations, think tankers and government delegations. The rather utilitarian Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) – a cross between the Barbican Centre and the Hall of the Supreme Soviet – was filled with large crowds, colourful presentations, and displays of national music and dance. They were […]
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5th October 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
I’ve just spent the weekend at the Milan Expo. Over a hundred countries showcasing themselves in a tradition of world fairs that stretches back to the nineteenth century and the “first World Expo” at Crystal Palace in 1851. The most expensive pavilion was the UAE extravaganza, coming in at allegedly just shy of £100 million. […]
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21st September 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
In December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Referring to a covenant that was by then already well over 700 years old, Eleanor Roosevelt welcomed the Declaration by saying she hoped it would become a Magna Carta for the world. Many today still argue that these fundamental rights enshrined […]
7th September 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Who could fail to be moved by the photograph last week of the little Syrian boy on a Turkish beach? We have long grown numb to the statistics of the Syrian conflict yet here was a picture that captured with blinding clarity the human tragedy. Hundreds of little Aylans have drowned in the Mediterranean far […]
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4th June 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
With our televisions screens filled by images of seemingly endless civil wars, spiralling sectarian horror, and rising humanitarian misery, many have concluded that the international system is failing, even broken. Yet on 25 May an event took place that tells a different story. One that gives hope to all those who believe that the United […]
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11th May 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Grahame Greene’s novel about Geneva ignores it, focusing instead on the nasty foibles of the very rich. And if they mention it at all, modern novelists writing about Geneva use the UN at best as a backdrop for international intrigue but more often as a metaphor for international impotence. For someone preparing to take up […]