15th May 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A new push is urgently needed to fight the illegal trade in wildlife products. On 18 May, HRH The Duke of Cambridge will join United for Wildlife (UfW) meetings in Gland, Switzerland. UfW is a collaboration of seven conservation organisations and the Royal Foundation. Convened by the Duke, they have joined forces to tackle conservation […]
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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 […]
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30th March 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
Council sessions take a heavy toll on all things that are close to us. Our partners, our children and our pets all suffer from weeks of neglect. So do our bags. Any object unfortunate enough to go into my rucksack during Council time will undergo a period of inanimate purgatory as draft resolutions, cereal bars, […]
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23rd March 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
By the end of week 3 of any March Council session everyone tends to look pretty frazzled. The combination of lack of time for proper meals, general neglect in the finer aspects of personal grooming and the knowledge that the session still has some time to go tend to take their toll. But this year […]
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17th March 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
As nice as it can be living out here, there are many drawbacks to not being in the UK. It’s easy to lose touch with friends, to miss out on historic national moments and to forget about sending a card in time to arrive for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, during the March session the only way […]
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9th March 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
While I was never the life and soul of all night parties – prone to having a little nap while others danced round me – I did at least used to be active and go out on a regular basis. These days, instead of thinking about finding new places to ski within easy reach of […]
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24th November 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
Tomorrow is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. As lead on women’s rights at the UK mission, my colleague Kate Kyriakides has kindly agreed to write a guest blog. Wearing Orange for Outrage Working on human rights at the UN in Geneva makes you realise how lucky you are. Our inboxes […]
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1st October 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
I don’t get much time to read any books of my own these days. With two young children, most of the literature that comes my way tends either to have sparkly shapes, no more than about 10 words a page or contain clearly accessible lessons in morality. Which makes them the exact opposite of Human […]
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23rd September 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
It’s been an interesting week to be a Brit at the UN. No matter what else has been going on in the rest of the world, all anyone wanted to talk to me about was Scotland. Mostly people just wanted to hear my prediction of what the result was going to be, as though I have […]
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15th September 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
For those of you who may have noticed me looking a little down in the mouth last week, this had little to do with work and almost everything to do with the temporary disappearance of our pet cat. She was obviously not getting enough attention having to compete in our household with two small children […]
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