7th March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Aftershave. Make-up. Back hair. At some point during our adolescence we realise that less is usually more and adjust our personal grooming behaviour accordingly. Despite my awkward formative years, even I managed to understand that aftershave was not to be applied by the bottle (though I never worried much about my make-up). The Council turns […]
26th February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
I am not your typical intern. I am about to turn 35, I have 2 children aged 5 and 3, and a previous career as a Barrister. I traded in late night briefs, daily court advocacy and negotiations, and challenging clients for the trials and tribulations of child rearing and home making. Eighteen months ago […]
23rd February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Like all governments and international organisations, the UN sometimes gets a bad press. Recently the UN faced critical headlines following the release of an opinion by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Julian Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the UK. Now, the decision to conclude that someone who is evading Swedish justice by […]
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11th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
The Geneva institutions are facing big questions at the start of 2016. Will the humanitarian system adapt to the challenges of protracted conflicts and unsustainable mass migration? Will the World Trade Organization (WTO) rediscover its role at the heart of the global economy? Can we respond effectively to the growing threat of pandemics and the […]
28th September 2015
Since I first saw a local Polish emigre folk dance group as a child, Poland has held great sense of romance for me. More recently, cycling and skiing along mountain border paths through fairy tale forests added to the magic. Warsaw though has always been for me a city of buildings. Buildings stretching along broad avenues as […]
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19th June 2015 London, UK
Florence Ayot was kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda when she was nine years old. “I was given to a Major and forced to be his slave. If I didn’t do what they ordered, they beat me,” says Florence in the documentary The War Against Women. “The most painful thing was that the girls […]
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18th June 2015 Beirut, Lebanon
This week is the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. This was celebrated in the UK as the moment when the barons imposed on the monarch an agreement for greater liberties and rights, a milestone on the way to many of the freedoms we enjoy today. That journey reached a high point with the Universal […]
16th June 2015 Havana, Cuba
I’ve written before about how more internet access for more Cubans is likely to spur economic growth so the rollout of the internet to more parts of the country is welcome. New internet cafes have been opened – although they are still relatively expensive – and wifi is being provided in a few parks in Trinidad, […]
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16th June 2015
On 15 June we celebrated the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. It is extraordinary how a document agreed in 1215 between a medieval English king and his leading subjects continues to resonate down the ages, wherever people believe in the rule of law. I recently wrote an article trying to set Magna Carta in its proper […]
2nd June 2015 Skopje, North Macedonia
This is not a political slogan. It is the title of an exhibition that the UK Parliament is hosting in celebration of 800 years of Magna Carta. The exhibition commissioned nine artists to produce banners for the historic and beautiful Westminster Hall, celebrating key moments along our journey to modern democracy. If you are not able to visit it in person, you can see the exhibition […]