Photo of the week

 

Solidarity with Populations Affected by Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
On 8 May 2018, an outbreak of Ebola was announced in Equateur Province in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In response to this health crisis, the State Council of Geneva awarded 200,000 Swiss francs in emergency assistance to Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland (MSF) for its vaccination activities in the DRC. Through this grant, the Republic and State of Geneva wish to show its solidarity with the populations affected by the virus, which has a fatality rate of 50%.

MSF, with doctors from the Geneva University Hospitals sent to the field, is working closely with the DRC Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization to administer the Ebola Zaïre V920 vaccine as a supplementary measure to control the epidemic. Since the vaccine is still experimental, it is being applied using a strict protocol, supervised by the ethics committees of MSF and the Congolese Government.

Participants, all of whom are volunteers, receive thorough information before being vaccinated, as well as rigorous check-ups afterward. Its deployment follows a strategy known as ring vaccination, in which the vaccine is administered to people in direct contact with infected individuals, the next line of contacts, and first line responders.

As of 17 June 1436 people in the Bikoro and Iboko/Itipo health zones have benefited from the vaccine. No new cases of Ebola have been reported since 11 June, but hundreds of contacts are still being monitored. Since the beginning of the outbreak, there have been 38 confirmed cases of the virus and 28 deaths.

Text : State of Geneva / MSF

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC): a new milestone in CERN’s history.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially entering a new stage. On Friday 15 June, CERN inaugurated the civil-engineering work for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). By 2026 this major upgrade will have considerably improved the performance of the LHC, by increasing the number of collisions in the large experiments and thus boosting the probability of the discovery of new physics phenomena.

Ms. Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN inserts a time capsule at point 5 of the LHC, next to Mr Pierre Maudet, President of the State Council, Republic and State of Geneva and Mr. Stéphane Bouillon, Prefect of the French region Auvergne Rhône Alpes.

This capsule contains a document submitted by the Republic and Canton of Geneva. This historic document from 1952 is the telegram by which the President of the Council of State at the time, Mr. Louis Casai, announced to his fellow members of the Government of Geneva the news of the decision taken by the signatory states of the convention for the establishment of a European organization for nuclear research in Geneva.

Text: CERN

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) will open its Geneva headquarters, Palais Wilson, on Saturday 16 June; from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The day will be an occasion to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the creation of the OHCHR. It will be dedicated to the efforts of human rights defenders, civil society actors and everyone around the world who work to defend and promote the principles of the Declaration.

Please come and visit us to enjoy a fun-filled day and learn about human rights!

Text: OHCHR

The next conference in the ongoing series on migration "Les rendez-vous de la migration", organized jointly by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Initiatives et Changement (I&C) and the Hospice Général on the topic of "Trauma and resilience" will take place on 14 June.

One person out of seven in the world is a migrant. These include 250 million international migrants and 760 million internal migrants. "Les rendez-vous de la migration" aims to support the discussion of issues related to migration and integration in Geneva through personal stories and open dialogue.

On 14 June, Dr. Sigiriya Aebischer Perone, head of the Department of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine  at HUG and Sarah Ait Ghezala-Rossier, a psychologist and psychotherapist with Association Pluriels, will present some useful tools and techniques to better understand what constitutes a trauma.

They will also discuss how to respond to people's personal histories of trauma, support their recovery and appreciate their resilience.

If you missed the first conference in the series, “Migratory routes and refugee camps, a long voyage, a summary is available here.

This photo, by Thomas Dworzak was taken in Libya in 2011. It is part of a collective exhibition currently hosted by the IMRC entitled "EXIL”, which includes "more than 300 images by Magnum Photos' photojournalists documenting the walking, waiting, uncertainty and fear, but also hope, that characterizes a migrant's journeys."

Walk the Talk: The Health for All Challenge
As part of celebrations of the World Health Organization’s 70th anniversary in 2018, WHO is staging a major health promotion event in Geneva on the eve of the 71st World Health Assembly.

On May 20, from 10am to 1pm, the free walk/run event, titled Walk the Talk: The Health for All Challenge, will be open to people of all ages and abilities and be held over three distances (short 3 km, medium 5 km and long 8 km). These connected routes will build a bridge between “international” and “local” Geneva and Lac Leman by linking key health, international and touristic landmarks found in the city.

Other activities and interactive events will be located along the routes: 1) Place de Nations, 2) WHO, 3) Jardin Botanique, 4) Ville Barton or 5) Bains des Pâquis.^
 
More information : 
Contact walkthetalk@who.int

Text provided by WHO

Over 30 international organisations met in Geneva on 12 April 2018 to reflect on the contribution of international rules and standards to the evolving economy, as part of the 5^th meeting of the partnership of international organisations for effective international rule-making.

The partnership, hosted by the OECD, started in 2014 as a voluntary platform to share practices and identify areas to improve international rules and standards as critical pillars of international regulatory co-operation across countries. It has since then become increasingly relevant, with some 50 international organisations joining their efforts to improve the quality and relevance of international rules and standards. This initiative aims to foster peer learning among international organisations and their constituency to promote greater quality, effectiveness and impact of international rules, by focusing on the rule-making practices of international organisations.

In the past decades, the interconnectedness of countries and the integration of the world economy have increased drastically, partly due to the many technical revolutions of the past 30 years. The rapid flow of goods, services, people and finance across borders is not least testing the effectiveness and the capacity of domestic regulatory frameworks. In order to overcome the shortcomings of domestic regulatory measures, countries are increasingly co-ordinating their approaches to achieve shared public interest objectives at lower costs. The role of international organisations in supporting countries to set effective and relevant rules and standards and building a fair and inclusive international system is crucial.

The collective exercise led by the partnership seeks to develop a common understanding of international instruments and build greater confidence of domestic regulators and legislators in international rules and support greater uptake of good quality international instruments in national legislation, by working towards the development and implementation of transparent, evidence-based and inclusive international instruments. Since 2014, the partnership of international organisations has developed analytical work on the governance modalities and rule-making practices of international organisations, which led to the launch of a cross-cutting report on International regulatory co-operation: the role of international organisations in fostering better rules of globalisation, in November 2016. Through its annual meetings, evidence-based analysis, and broad network of international organisations and academics, the partnership offers a unique opportunity for peer learning and exchange to better tailor the specific needs of international organisations.


Text provided by OECD

The Global Health Campus opened its doors on 12 March, when the Global Fund began its move from Blandonnet to Grand Saconnex. When joined by Gavi, Unitaid, Roll Back Malaria and Stop TB over the coming weeks and months, it will bring together global health partners to unlock the collective potential of our distinctive missions.

A key driver of the project has been valued for money, a primary concern for the project’s partners Gavi and the Global Fund, and our donors. Each expects significant savings in ongoing building costs, but the opportunities to find efficiencies go beyond savings on rent and services.

Many of the co-locating organizations already work closely together to enhance programmatic effectiveness across the programs we fund. Being together on the campus will enable even closer collaboration and the sharing of best practices and the better coordination of programmatic activity. This is the essence of the ‘campus’ spirit.

The Campus is designed to foster collaboration and inspire innovation so we can deliver greater impact for the people we serve. It’s a great place to work. Together.


Text provided by the Global Fund

UEFA and UNOG are joining forces to organise a charity football match.
"The Match for Solidarity" will involve two teams featuring former star players and will take place on Saturday 21 April 2018 at 16.00 CET at the Stade de Genève. The two teams will be managed by Carlo Ancelotti and Didier Deschamps, and will be captained by Luís Figo and Ronaldinho respectively.

A glittering roster of players has been assembled for the event, including: Éric Abidal, Vitor Baia, Cafu, Deco, Dida, Youri Djorkaeff, Edmilson, Alexander Frei, Nuno Gomes, Christian Karembeu, Patrick Kluivert, Robbie Keane, Henrik Larsson, Jari Litmanen, Gaizka Mendieta, Robert Pirès, Andrea Pirlo, Célia Šašić, Dejan Stanković and many more.

The proceeds from this event, as well as from the charity dinner and a unique digital football auction, will go to the UEFA Foundation for Children. The funds will be used to finance humanitarian and development projects to help children with disabilities at both local and global levels.

Tickets for the match, are available at ticketcorner.ch. The digital football auction including some of the finest memorabilia from the world’s leading players has been launched at matchforsolidarity.com.

Spectators will also have the opportunity to watch the pre-match activities, which include a children’s match organised by Eleven Campaign, involving both local and international children.

This event is held with the support of the City of Geneva and the Geneva Stadium Foundation.

Founded 12 years ago by the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva, the Geneva Health Forum (GHF) has become one of the most important European events in global health. The 7^th edition of the GHF will be held from 10 to 12 April 2018 at the International Conference Center of Geneva (CICG). The forum’s central topic this year is Precision Global Health in the Digital Age, or how the digital revolution can transform the way we practice global health.

By combining life sciences, social sciences and data science, the GHF 2018 will showcase innovative solutions that have been proposed, used, and evaluated in the field to help tackle major global health issues: GHF Programme & Speakers

In a spirit of openness and dialogue, GHF 2018 offers a unique opportunity for practitioners, academics, and professionals from both the private and public sectors, as well as international and non-governmental organizations, to network and exchange views.

As the main forum for innovative practices in global health, this interactive and dynamic hub also offers an opportunity for participants to try out new technologies and products. The Global Health Lab groups innovations by topic, with the aim of encouraging meaningful connections that could lead to new ideas, new opportunities and new partnerships.

Join us in shaping the global health agenda of tomorrow by promoting equitable use and access to the tools of today for all: Online Registration

The photo is from the SWISS Foundation for Innovation and Training in Surgery, a flagship center for continuing education for operating-room professionals. This multidisciplinary platform is designed to simulate real-world conditions that surgical staff typically encounter during an operation, providing a controlled environment in which to conduct training with cutting-edge  equipment.

Text provided by the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva.

Geneva’s major urban projects
Geneva is a great place to live and work, but some may find that housing and transportation have been a challenge!
So what is Geneva doing about it? Come and discover at the exhibition “Geneva’s major urban projects” from 11 to 13 April 2018 (from 12 pm to 6.30 pm) and Saturday 14 April (from 11 am to 6.30 pm), at the Centre de conférences de Varembé, near place des Nations.

Geneva’s dynamism indeed goes hand in hand with ambitious urban developments, some of which are already under construction: new housing and activity areas, the Léman Express rail network, the Nations road and tunnel or public equipment and infrastructure for the canton’s energy transition. All these projects will enhance Geneva’s attractiveness and quality of life.

An exhibition to be discovered with colleagues, family and friends.

The exhibition presents the projects in augmented reality on a giant floor photo of the region. Projects for the Nations area are specially highlighted, including with the model of the “Cité de la Musique.” It’s convenient to visit during a lunch break or after work with your colleagues based in the Nations area. The exhibition will also interest your family and friends and is therefore open on Saturday 14 April from 11 am to 6.30 pm, including brunch with local products from Geneva!

By the way, kids just love crawling on the giant floor photo to find their house!

Meet staff of Geneva State
Representatives of Geneva State will welcome visitors. Free entrance, guided visits in English or French upon request (dale.information@etat.ge.ch).

17 Global Goals to end poverty, reduce inequalities, and ensure prosperity for all, #YouNeedToKnow. 

Since September 2015, when 193 countries adopted the 2030 Agenda, UN Office at Geneva is on the frontline to engage everybody to contribute to achieving the Global Goals.

The worldwide #YouNeedToKnow the #GlobalGoals campaign invites everyone to be part of the global movement to raise the awareness of the 17 Global Goals. If you wish to join, start to share information about them among your family, school and community.

As the UN Geneva personnel, take a picture with the #YouNeedToKnow banner and share using #YouNeedToKnow. Every voice matters.

Text provided by UNOG

On 7 February 2018, Plan International will launch the Girls' Rights are Human Rights major report and a wide-ranging Girls’ Rights Platform. Plan International is an international NGO, active in 75 countries worldwide, that works to advance children’s rights and equality for girls. 

Girls continue to be the largest excluded group in the world. 41,000 girls are forced into marriage every day, and half of all sexual assaults are committed against girls under age 16.

The report and Girls’ Rights Platform reveals the extent to which international law overlooks girls’ rights, and calls on the international community to:

-       Address girls’ double burden of gender- and age-based discrimination.
-       Bridge the gaps between women’s and children’s rights that render girls invisible.
-       Ensure that international policy and agreements reflect the challenges that girls face.
-       Urge States to comply with international standards that advance girls’ rights.

To learn more about the launch event, please click here.

This picture taken by Kenyan photographer Armstrong Too, shows girls fetching water during the day. Many girls around the world miss hours or even entire days of school because of such tasks. This image was part of an exhibition held by Plan International for International Day of the Girl on 11 October 2016. 

Text povided by Plan International

The Service de la Genève internationale is proud to announce the launch of its new online calendar!

Around 3000 meetings are organized each year by Geneva-based international bodies, not to mention hundreds of conferences at universities and research centres. Many other cultural or economic events also contribute to Geneva's international influence. With so much on offer every day of the year, it can be difficult at times to know what is happening when. The International Geneva Calendar brings some much-needed clarity to this rich programme, in the form of a comprehensive, searchable and user-friendly online platform.

The purpose of the Calendar is to reflect the broad variety of activities in International Geneva and to provide users with a reliable planning tool.

Its intended audience is the community of diplomats, international civil servants, experts, teachers, students, journalists and service providers who are active or interested in International Geneva.

Its content will consist of meetings and events organized by international organizations, NGOs, permanent missions, academia, and the authorities of the host country, as well as the main international conferences, trade shows and festivals taking place in Geneva throughout the year. Practical and easy to use, the calendar can be viewed by day, week or month. Events can be filtered by theme or type of organizer. Users can easily add events to their own calendar, or share them on their social networks. Lastly, events can be proposed for inclusion in the calendar.

Do not hesitate to contact the International Geneva team for more information or to request assistance with using the calendar.

We invite you to start using calendar.geneve-int.ch straight away! 

The UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is the world's largest neutral multistakeholder forum that promotes discussion and dialogue on digitisation. It was convened for the first time in 2006 by the UN Secretary-General. Since then, every year 2000 to 3000 representatives from governments, international organizations, business, civil society, the technical sector and academia from all over the world participate in the IGF. The program is defined by the wider internet community through a "bottom-up" process. While there is no negotiated outcome, the IGF facilitates a common understanding on how to best address the opportunities created by the internet, as well as the risks and challenges.

Under the banner "Shape Your digital future!", this year's IGF will be hosted by Switzerland from 18 to 21 December 2017 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Ms. Doris Leuthard, President of the Swiss Confederation, will inaugurate the IGF, which will include more than 200 events in different formats. The agenda addresses issues such as cyber security, the data economy, sustainable development, human rights on the internet, as well as the influence of digitisation on the economy, the media landscape and politics.

Geneva, as the seat of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) as well as more than 30 international organisations, 350 NGOs and 256 Permanent Missions, is ideally suited to host an IGF that aims to encourage a constructive dialogue, break down barriers, and mobilise stakeholders across all sectors.

Switzerland invites everyone to engage actively in the IGF. Participation is free of charge. Please register online.

Text provided by Federal Office of Communications.

The internationally recognized photographer and Magnum Photos member Martin Parr signs this image taken in 2017 in Santiago, Cuba. A large selection of his work is currently exhibited at the Kunstfoyer in Munich until January 2018 "MARTIN PARR. Souvenir - A Photographic Journey". 

The European Union is a winner of the 3rd edition of the Geneva Engage Awards, as the top permanent mission in its social media outreach and engagement. According to the methodology behind the Geneva Engage Awards, DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform analysed social media activities of organisations and permanent missions in International Geneva and their engagement with the Internet public. The analysis measured the level of engagement according to nine indicators, including the average number of mentions per tweet, the percentage of tweets that are retweeted by others, and the number of people that are talking about the organisation on Facebook. The full analysis report will be made available on the Geneva Engage Awards page.

The Geneva Engage Awards are distributed in three categories: international organisations, NGOs/non-profits and permanent missions. The winners of the international organisation and NGO/non-profit categories will be announced during the Geneva Engage Awards Ceremony on 11 December (15:00-17:00).

The Awards serve Geneva Engage's objective to foster connections between International Geneva and communities worldwide that are affected by the policy discussions in Geneva. The event is organised with the support of the Canton of Geneva.

Text provided by DiploFoundation.

From Guyana in South America to Makati in the Philippines (and many other places in between) filmmakers from around the globe will soon showcase their skills as cinematographers at the Global Migration Film Festival. Organized by the UN Migration Agency, IOM and supported by UN Information Centers worldwide and with the financial support of DHL, the festival will take place in over 100 countries from 5 to 18 December 2017.

The second edition of the annual Festival will explore the challenges and promises of migration, the heterogenous journey of migrants, moving from one location to another, settling for temporary or permanent periods, in search for a better future and economic prosperity, reuniting with loved ones, or fleeing war and despair.

Films have the power to show different facets of life, through which viewers may cultivate deeper empathy for migrants and a better understanding of their realities, needs, perspectives and capacities. The objective of the Festival is to use films as educational tools that influence perceptions towards migrants bringing attention to social issues.

The first movie of the festival in Geneva, Lost in Lebanon, delves into news reports from the frontlines of the Syrian war. It takes an intimate look at the lives of four Syrians in Lebanon, who are trying to find ways to overcome the trauma of their shattered lives. The opening screening is hosted in partnership with The Graduate Institute and takes place on 5 December at Maison de la Paix, Geneva. One of the protagonists of the opening film, Mwafak, was invited to create the award statue for the Festival, which will be handed to the Festival winner on the 18th December, during the closing ceremony at Les Cinémas du Grütli.

Text provided by the IOM. 

The International Solidarity Division of the Canton of Geneva and the University of Geneva Hospitals (HUG) are hosting a joint panel discussion on the topic of "The Fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases", Tuesday 28 November at 18h30 at HUG. Mr François Longchamp, President of the Geneva Council of State, will officially open the event.
In recent years, the Canton of Geneva's International Solidarity Fund has supported a variety of projects that tackle the issue of neglected tropical diseases.

The canton's contribution has enabled significant advances in the diagnostics and treatment of sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis), among others. More specifically, the fund provided financial support for projects in East Africa led by two Geneva-based organisations, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

The canton is also involved in the fight against leprosy in Cambodia and noma in West Africa through projects implemented by Fondation CIOMAL and Amis de Sentinelles, respectively.
Closer to home, a dedicated multidisciplinary group from the HUG and the Geneva Faculty of Medicine is actively researching the causes of noma.

The panel on 28 November highlights the canton's commitment to international solidarity through such initiatives, as well as the innovative and highly effective work of Geneva-based organisations in fighting these debilitating diseases.

The event is open to the public.

Registration is recommended. If you wish to attend, please email si-secretariat@etat.ge.ch

Text provided by the International Solidarity Division of the Canton of Geneva.

On this picture, the photographer Neil Brandvold show a sleeping sickness screening by a mobile team in Yalikombo, a very isolated village along the Congo river, in between Isangi and Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, country accounting for 84% of cases of the disease.

The tenth annual meeting of UNECE's Working Group on Ageing will take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 23-24 November 2017.

The UNECE region – which covers 56 countries in Europe, North America and Asia – is experiencing population ageing earlier than other regions. Today, 194.9 million people in the region are aged 65 or over, representing 15.4% of the total population – up from 13.1% in 2002. This brings significant challenges, but also a wealth of opportunities if the potential that living longer holds for individuals, economies and societies at large is properly harnessed.

As host to the Working Group on Ageing – the only standing intergovernmental body on ageing in the regional United Nations system – UNECE supports countries in the region in the development of wide-ranging innovation and reform to adapt to demographic transformations. UNECE supports countries in implementing their commitments of the Madrid International Plan of Action and its Regional Implementation Strategy (MIPAA/RIS, adopted in 2002) through policy advice, by tracking progress and trends, and by fostering the exchange of experiences and expertise between countries.

At its tenth meeting, the Working Group will review the outcomes of the 4th UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing, identifying strategies for concrete actions to support countries in reaching three priority policy goals by 2022, namely:

• Recognizing the potential of older persons,
• Encouraging longer working life and ability to work,
• Ensuring ageing with dignity.

To find out more, please follow the link.

Text provided by the UNECE.

This picture was taken by the photographer David Hurn in 2000, during the mens over 90's 50m dash in Arizona. Hurn is a self-taught photographer. He has a longstanding international reputation as one of Britain's most influential reportage photographers. His prints are acquired by many leading collectors and museums.

CERN is one of the world's leading laboratories for particle physics. At CERN, physicists and engineers use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to understand the fundamental structure and origins of the universe. Established 64 years ago, as one of Europe's first joint ventures, the laboratory today brings together more than 12 000 physicists, from 105 nationalities, working in an open and peaceful environment.

To study the basic constituents of matter, particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light in CERN's complex of particle accelerators, which sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is CERN's flagship accelerator; at 27km diameter, it is the world's most powerful particle collider.

The knowledge generated at CERN and the technological innovations driven by the science that is carried out at the laboratory have and still do benefit society. After all, CERN gave the world the world-wide web and has been a pioneer in other technologies, such as touch screens and PET scanners.

CERN is an open organisation: the world-wide web was made free and open almost from the moment it was born. Today, CERN's scientific results are freely available and all software tools are available in open source. It is also open to visitors, from near and far: over 150 000 people visit CERN each year, and around 1 000 teachers from more than 25 countries take part in dedicated programmes.

All this will be shared with visitors to Les Automnales 2017. In a stand designed to represent a collision between particles, CERN staff and scientists will take visitors on a true journey through CERN's science, technology and impact on society and the local community. From virtual tours of the LHC and CERN's detectors, to films, interactive exhibitions and hands-on activities, visitors of all ages will be able to share in the passion that drives all "CERNois".

Text provided by the CERN.

Les Automnales
10-19 novembre 2017
Palexpo
Route François-Peyrot 30
1218 Le Grand-Saconnex 

In his address to Members of the UN Security Council on 10 January 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, "Prevention is not merely a priority, but the priority. If we live up to our responsibilities, we will save lives, reduce suffering and give hope to millions." In keeping with this prioritization, the fourth edition of Geneva Peace Week will focus on the theme of Prevention Across Sectors and Institutions.

Geneva Peace Week will take place from 6-10 November 2017 and consist of 50 events organized by 99 organizations, featuring more than 150 expert speakers on a variety of cross cutting topics on peace and security.

The focus on prevention offers an opportunity to connect and highlight the work of Geneva-based institutions and their international partners and to understand the links between prevention, peace, human rights, education, development, the management of natural resources and many other topics.

"Geneva Peace Week maximizes synergies between sectors and organizations in Geneva and beyond, focused on the cross-cutting nature of prevention. It underlines that each and every person, actor and institution has a role to play in building peace, resolving conflict and strengthening prevention" - Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

"Geneva plays an important role in this respect because such dialogue and negotiation – or peace diplomacy – happens here on a daily basis. Often, it is discrete and only insiders know about it. Geneva Peace Week has the objective to change this and highlight how so many different actors contribute to sustaining peace in so many ways and so many places." - Achim Wennmann, Executive Coordinator, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, and Senior Researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding).
The full programme of events is available here.

Highlights will include the Annual Meeting of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, The World Café Reception (Monday 6 November at Maison de la Paix), and event clusters on The future of prevention policy (Wednesday 8 November, Palais des Nations) and Cyber, big data and new technologies (Thursday 9 November, Palais des Nations).

To attend Geneva Peace Week please visit www.genevapeaceweek.ch and follow us on @GenevaPeaceWeek #GVAPeaceWeek.
Geneva Peace Week is a collective initiative facilitated by the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform with the support of the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Genève.

Text provided by the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform.

During the Geneva Peace week, discover at UNOG in the Passerelle the exhibition "What does peace look like?", from the 2016 International Contest Alfred Fried Prize, supported by UNESCO, which annually recognizes the best photography on the theme of peace.

With the photography entitled "Peace, what is it ?" , the Austrian Jan Gott share his vision of the peace: "This is something that Buddhists try to achieve in a lifelong process which maybe takes back to the very point when children begin to lose it as a natural gift. So to me peace is clearly a state of mind that offers it’s simplicity to us although it can have many faces".

The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and The Economist will organise on Thursday 02 November a conference about The Future of Work (Auditorium Ivan Pictet, Maison de la Paix, 17:00-19:30).

Rapid technological change will mean that, over the course of our working lives, many skills will become obsolete, others will grow in economic importance and traditional career trajectories will be a thing of the past. In a context of constant change, of robotics and of artificial intelligence, this event aims to answer the following question: is education a future-proof route to stable employment?

Ryan Avent, the moderator, is a Senior Editor and Economics Columnist at The Economist. With:
- Richard Baldwin, Professor of International Economics, The Graduate Institute
- Myriam Denk, Partner, Human Capital, Deloitte Switzerland
- Shea Gopaul, Executive Director, Global Apprenticeships Network
- Linda Kromjong, Secretary General, International Organization of Employers
- Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Deputy director of the Research department, International Labor Organisation

Text provided by the The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

The internationally recognized photographer and Magnum Photos member Martin Parr signs this image taken in 2013 in Doha, Qatar. A large selection of his work is currently exhibited at the Kunstfoyer in Munich until January 2018 "MARTIN PARR. Souvenir - A Photographic Journey". 

The sixty-eight session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is held at the Palais des Nations from 23 October to 17 November 2017. Adopted by the United Nations in 1979, the CEDAW is the most important human rights treaty for women. The Convention currently has 189 states parties. Thus, the vast majority of the member states of the UN (193) have voluntarily agreed to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of women under all circumstances.

CEDAW, also known as the treaty for the rights of women, is a tool that helps women around the world to bring about change in their daily life. In countries that have ratified the treaty, CEDAW has proved invaluable in opposing the effects of discrimination, which include violence, poverty, and lack of legal protections, along with the denial of inheritance, property rights, and access to credit.

The treaty has contributed the development of citizenship rights in Botswana and Japan; inheritance rights in the United Republic of Tanzania; property rights and political participation in Costa Rica.

In addition, in response to CEDAW's concluding observations, China took measures to curb cases of non-medical foetus sex identification and sex-selective abortion and to change stereotypes leading to son preference and Sri Lanka introduced gender-responsive budgeting for rural economic development projects. For more information, please follow this link.

Text provided by OHCHR.

The photographer Alex Majoli took this picture in 2006 in Monrovia (Liberia), during the week of the inauguration of President Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf. We can see a woman walking by the poster of the election campaign.

In celebration of 25 years of "Changing finance and financing change", the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is convening the sustainable finance community at a series of five Regional Roundtables. On 16 and 17 October 2017, the European Roundtable is held in Geneva, home of the UNEP FI secretariat.

These agenda-setting events provide an opportunity for leaders from across the financial sector, civil society, academia, government, and the United Nations to discuss the latest trends and innovations in the region, as well as share good practice. Elliott Harris, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Environment, now a member of UNEP FI's Global Steering Committee will be speaking at the Europe Roundtable. A full list of all the speakers can be found on the Europe Roundtable speakers' page.

A few agenda highlights include the following:
• Panel session on the Progress in Sustainable Finance (and the Long Road Ahead)
• Plenary session on the topic of the Paris Agreement, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and beyond: managing risk, seizing opportunity & enabling the climate economic transition
• Dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Finance
• Side Event organized by Swiss Sustainable Finance on Wealth Management with Impact

UNEP FI is a partnership between the United Nations and the global financial sector dating back to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Realising that the finance industry has a key role to play in fostering a sustainable future for the planet, UNEP FI's mission is to promote sustainable finance and encourage resilient financial institutions. Today, over 200 financial institutions across the banking, insurance, and investment sectors are members of UNEP FI.

In this picture, we can see an energy efficiency project supported by The Asian Development Bank in the Philippines. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are being tested at the Lighting and Appliance Testing Laboratory. The Energy Efficiency Project has distributed compact fluorescent lamps nationwide. Each CFL bulb is expected to save customers 400 pesos, (around $8.50) each year for the next 7 to 10 years.

Source: UNEP FI and Asian Development Bank

Accelerate2030 is a cross-border scaling program for positive social and environmental impact launched by Impact Hub Geneva in 2016 with UNDP as the founding partner. The mission of Accelerate2030 is to scale the impact of ventures that contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030 and to help them develop sustainable corporate culture in line with their values.

Accelerate2030 believes that a paradigm shift towards sustainable business practices is underway, and we wish to support ventures around the world to scale their business working towards achieving positive social impact in their communities, as well as to support them with internal sustainable corporate culture through our leadership coaching. We believe that the future of business relies on sustainable business practices, and the unique positioning of the programme in Geneva can leverage the potential and networks of many organisations head-quartered in Switzerland, as well as the vibrant financial community in the country and rest of Europe.

The 9 global finalists of the 2017 edition, coming from Latin America, Africa, South-east Asia and Europe, will be in Geneva from the 6th to the 14th of October to meet impact investors, corporate and leadership experts, international organizations, and other entrepreneurs who will coach them for the following 9 months. These finalists have been selected throughout the 17 countries Accelerate2030 works in amongst a pool of 324 applicants. The highlight of this week is the SDG Factory on October 12th, which is also the chance for any member of the public to go to Impact Hub Geneva to meet the finalists and participate in evening drinks and networking.

Text provided by Accelerate2030

The Palais des Nations will open its doors to the public on Saturday 7 October, prior to a five-year-long renovation of the complex. Originally built in the 1930s, this symbol of Geneva's diplomatic power has never been fully renovated. The open day will feature unique interactive and educational activities, presented by key members of international Geneva.

Interaction and dialogue with UN staff will be the common theme of the open day. A series of booths scattered around the Palais will highlight the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and 2030 Agenda. Fun-filled activity trails will allow visitors to gain a better understanding of the work carried out by Geneva-based UN agencies and international organizations, through tangible examples of their achievements. The most iconic rooms in the Palais will be open to the public, showcasing the building's rich architectural and artistic heritage.

The Palais in a few key figures:
- The complex extends over 600 metres and includes 34 conference rooms and 2,800 offices. It is the United Nations' second-largest centre after New York.
- The Palais des Nations hosts over 10,000 meetings per year, of which 16% are held outside Geneva. On average, 47 meetings take place every working day.
- 1,099 journalists were accredited with UNOG in 2016.
- 111,063 visitors joined a guided tour of the Palais.

During the open day, journalist Joëlle Kuntz will present her most recent book, "International Geneva: 100 Years of Architecture", published this October by Editions Slatkine. The book recounts the construction of the buildings that make up the city's international quarter today. The presentation will take place at 11 a.m. in the Delegates Lounge, followed by a book signing.

In 2015, for its 70th anniversary, the Palais des Nations organized an open day that attracted 20,000 visitors, including many families.

Practical information:
Saturday, 7 October, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last entry 5 p.m.). Free admission. For information and reservation, please follow the link (select an arrival time; you can then stay for the rest of the day).

Government representatives will gather in Geneva, from 24 to 29 September 2017, for the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Organized by United Nations Environment Programme, the Conference will be hosted by the Swiss Government at the International Conference Centre in Geneva (CICG).

In parallel to the Conference, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Swiss Government are also organizing a "Hg Week" with a series of events to raise the awareness, in particular of the Geneva public, about the threat posed by this highly toxic chemical that endangers the environment and health of millions of people around the world, including the most vulnerable: foetuses, new-born babies and children.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, which will enter into force on 16 August 2017, is an international treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, a global and ubiquitous metal that, while naturally occurring, has broad uses in everyday objects and is released to the atmosphere, soil and water from a variety of sources.

Some of the major highlights of the Minamata Convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues. For further information about the Conference and the Minamata Convention, please follow the link.

In this photograph by the renowned photojournalist William Eugene Smith (1918-1978), a mother is holding her 12 year old child who is suffering from the Minamata disease, a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Smith spent four years in Minamata documenting the consequence of mercury pollution. He is the author of many books, notably: W. Eugene Smith Master of the Photographic Essay. 

The seventy-fifth session of the Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety will be held at the Palais des Nations on 19-22 September 2017.
Keeping the roads safe for all road users is a global concern. Every year 1.25 million people are killed and around 50 million are injured in road traffic crashes, making it one of the most pressing health emergencies of our time. 500 children lose their lives on the road every day; with road traffic accidents representing the leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29.

As guardian of the United Nations Road Safety Conventions, UNECE is host to the Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) – the only permanent intergovernmental body in the United Nations system that focuses on improving road safety. Its primary function is to promote the harmonization of traffic rules, bringing countries together to ensure that rules are up to date and applied as widely as possible.

At its seventy-fifth session, the Global Forum will discuss – among other subjects – the integration within the international legal framework of provisions concerning highly automated and/or driverless vehicles, in order to ensure that improving road safety remains a driving force for technological innovation.

Text provided by the UNECE.

One of the most highly regarded British photographers of his generation, Peter Marlow began his career as a photojournalist with the Sygma news agency in 1976. He joined Magnum Photos in 1980, remaining there for rest of his career. 

Launch of the report of the Global High Level Panel on Water and Peace - 14 September 2017, Maison de la Paix, Geneva. More information here. 

A self-taught photographer, Newsha Tavakolian began working professionally in the Iranian press at the age of 16. Her work has been displayed in dozens of international art exhibitions and has been on show in museums such as the Victoria & Albert, LACMA in and the British Museum, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. She became a Magnum nominee in 2015.

On 5th September, the International Commission of Jurists and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies will co-organize a public conference: Elements of a treaty on business and human rights.

In June 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council established an inter-governmental working group to "elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises". The third session of the working group will take place from 23-27 October 2017 at the Palais des Nations.

The 5th September event takes place at a critical moment to inform the process of elaboration by the working group. It will foster the exchange of views among international actors, with the aim of creating the basis for consensus on possible contents of a legally binding instrument in the field of business and human rights.

The prospective treaty is expected to contribute to fill some accountability gaps in the international normative framework, in relation to the operations of business enterprises in terms of human rights. The treaty should also enhance States' action to ensure effective remedies and reparations for the victims of abuses. This treaty will be the first in the international human rights law framework to address directly activities of business corporations.

The issue of human rights impacts by business enterprises has reached the top of the international agenda, and several non-treaty instruments have been developed, foremost among them the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The process towards a treaty in this field is expected to build on the achievements so far, filling remaining gaps and enhancing rules for and action by states and businesses alike.

Text provided by International Commission of Jurists 

This photograph by Georges Rodger shows a cleaner on the Empire State building in 1950. Born in Cheshire, George Rodger served in the British Merchant Navy. After a short spell in America, he worked as a photographer for the BBC's The Listener magazine. In 1947, Rodger was invited to join Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and William Vandivert in founding Magnum.

The 20th edition of the Fête de la Presse & de la Communication, organized by the Geneva Press Club, will take place on 31 August at La Pastorale. Since its creation in 1997, the Geneva Press Club has hosted over 30 heads of states or prime ministers, and organised numerous events, including around a hundred press conferences with ambassadors and world leaders, among them Fidel Castro, Kofi Annan, Henry Kissinger and the Dalai Lama. These events have served as the basis for thousands of articles, television reports and radio interviews around the world.

The first meeting between US President Ronald Reagan and Secretary-General of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev took place at the Geneva Summit, in November 1985. In this photo, journalists await the two leaders’ joint press conference, an historic event in the context of the Cold War.

One of the most highly regarded British photographers of his generation, Peter Marlow began his career as a photojournalist with the Sygma news agency in 1976. He joined Magnum Photos in 1980, remaining there for rest of his career.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) will meet from 14 to 31 August at the Palais des Nations. The CRPD is one of the ten UN human rights treaty bodies.  These bodies are made of independent experts in charge of monitoring the implementation of major human rights treaties. In the case of the CRPD, the treaty is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It was adopted in 2006.

The CRPD usually meets twice a year in Geneva. During the 18th session, it will consider reports presented by Latvia, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, Panama and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Henry Cartier-Bresson's picture was taken in Hamburg in 1952-1953, at the time of publication of his first book "Images à la sauvette", in which the photographer evokes the importance of the decisive moment for his photographs. Known as a pioneer of street photography, he captures in this picture the contrast between the movement of birds in flight and the stillness of the disabled man.

The 40th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) takes place this week at CICG. The CAC is an intergovernmental body established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1963 to develop harmonized international food standards to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in food trade.

The CAC is at the heart of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, setting international standards and guidelines for nutrition, food safety and quality. It also develops the Codex Alimentarius, which is the collection of all standards and recommendations as guidance for national authorities.

The 188 Codex members, together with observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, represent 99% of the world's population. While Codex standards are recommendations for voluntary application by members, they serve in many cases as a basis for national legislation.

WHO, as the parent organization to Codex together with FAO, supports the work of Codex by providing science-based risk assessment on various chemical and microbiological hazards in food through the FAO/WHO Scientific Advice programme. It also supports developing and transition economy countries to engage sustainably in Codex. For this, the Codex Trust Fund has been established to support over 100 eligible countries to build strong and sustainable national capacity to engage in Codex work.

WHO also supports the Commission financially and by providing strategic guidance.
Why are international food safety standards so important?WHO estimates that almost 1 in 10 people fall ill every year due to foodborne disease and that 420,000 deaths are caused by unsafe food, with children under five years of age accounting for almost one third.

Developing food safety standards based on science are essential for preventing foodborne diseases. Not all countries have the resources to provide the science and develop the standards. Also, global trade of foods requires an internationally harmonized and agreed system based on scientific evidence. Within the World Trade Organization's "sanitary and phytosanitary" measures (SPS Agreement), reference is made to Codex food safety standards, as these are the international benchmark and have far reaching implications for resolving trade disputes.

Diana Markosian is an Armenian-American photographer who is a Magnum nominee since 2016. She took this photographie in Afghanistan (Badakhshan) in 2011. This photo represents food being prepared by an Afghan woman.

The 6th Aid for Trade Global Review will be held from 11 to 13 July at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva. Under the theme “Promoting Trade, Inclusiveness and Connectivity for Sustainable Development”, the 2017 Global Review will focus on crucial trade and development issues, such as the trade dimension of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital connectivity, women's empowerment and trade facilitation.

In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with WTO will launch a publication entitled “Food standards and Trade”. Food standards and trade go hand in hand in ensuring safe, nutritious and sufficient food for a growing world population, projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes international trade as an engine for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction, and an important means to achieve the SDGs. Indeed, international trade rules have an important role to play in efforts to reduce poverty and food insecurity, and thus to contribute to realize FAO’s vision of a “world free from hunger and malnutrition”.

A key objective of FAO’s work programme on trade is to support countries’ more effective participation in the formulation and implementation of trade agreements that enhanced food security. FAO also works with all stakeholders involved in the field of trade, food policy and food standard to strengthen the coordination and the cooperation among agriculture, heath and trade authorities and to raise awareness at the global level on the need for engagement and investment in domestic capacities.

Born in Antwerp in 1941, the photographer Harry Gruyaert has worked in numerous countries, notably in the United Kingdom, in the United States, in India, in Morocco and Japan. He took this photography in Vietnam (Mekong Delta) in 1984. A retrospective of its work was presented in Paris in 2015 and an important exhibition will be shown at the FotoMuseum of Antwerp in 2018.

The International Law Commission will hold the second part of its sixty-ninth session at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 3 July to 4 August 2017.

The Commission was established by the General Assembly, in 1947 for the "promotion of the progressive development of international law and its codification".

The International Law Commission's work has led to the creation of a number of treaties and other works of international law that are key to the present international legal order like for example the Vienna Convention.

In 1949, the Commission drew up a provisional list of fourteen topics selected for codification. This list of topics constituted the Commission's basic long-term programme of work for more than fifty years. The list was supplemented and, for the sixty-ninth session, the main topics are:

Pursuant to the 2016 election, the Commission's membership for the 2017-2021 quinquennium consists of 34 members who all must be experts on international law, elected to the position by the General Assembly from a list of candidates nominated by UN member states. The chairman of the sixty-ninth session is Mr. Georg Nolte (Germany).

The photograph Abbas Attar has dedicated himself to documenting the political and social life of societies in conflict. He has covered wars and revolutions in Biafra, Bangladesh, Northern Ireland, Vietnam, the Middle East including Iran revolution, Cuba, and South Africa during apartheid. He took this photo during the Gulf War in 1991. The protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts is one of the main topics of the 69th session of the International Law Commission.

To preserve the ocean is to preserve life. That conviction lies at the heart of Race for Water Foundation’s mission. From 29 June until 23 July, the Foundation will present a free, open-air exhibition on Quai Wilson in Geneva, featuring a series of 60 photographs by Peter Charaf. This chronicle of a yearlong, round-the-globe sailing expedition to assess and understand plastic pollution in the world's oceans will leave no one indifferent!

According to a study published by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation in 2016, 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year and by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Each of the photographs in the exhibition is accompanied by a text in French and English detailing the subject of the image, the scientific experiments carried out during the expedition, the islands visited, and the conclusions reached – mainly, that measures need to be taken on land to prevent plastics from reaching the ocean in the first place.

In February 2017, the Foundation launched a new round-the-world expedition, the Race for Water Odyssey of Hope. "We are moving from assessment to action, with the goal of showing that solutions exist to turn plastic waste into an energy resource," said Marco Simeoni, President of the Race for Water Foundation.

This image is one of a series of 60 photographs exhibited on Quai Wilson. Peter Charaf, a photographer specializing in extreme sports, adventure, and travel, joined Race for Water Odyssey 2015 to observe the global impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

Mines and explosive remnants of war maim and kill thousands of people every year. These explosive hazards result in girls, boys, women, and men acquiring debilitating injuries that often have long-term consequences for their families and communities. Casualties have been rising over the past few years, as people in conflicts zones face an unprecedented array of deadly explosive hazards, that range from improvised explosive devices, to unexploded cluster munitions, bombs, shells, mortars, rockets, and landmines.

Since its establishment in 1997, UNMAS has led humanitarian mine action in conflict and post conflict settings. Mine action has always gone beyond clearance activities and land release. Critically, it has included sensitizing affected populations to the risks posed by explosive hazards and ensuring that assistance is provided to victims, their families and communities. 

Mine-risk education involves specialized and highly-targeted campaigns that are incorporated into all UNMAS programmes. Their purpose is to reduce the risk of injury from explosive hazards by raising awareness and promoting behavioural change. Risk education efforts in 2016 impacted over 4,300,000 people in 18 mine-affected countries and territories around the world. In this photograph from March 2016, a girl in Côte d’Ivoire is pictured learning about the risk of explosive hazards in her community.

As the number of victims grows, comprehensive and integrated Victim Assistance has become increasingly urgent.  The international community has a duty to address their needs, yet Victim Assistance remains underfunded. In February 2017, the UN and its NGO partners appealed for $30 million to help victims, however only $1 million has been received to date. UNMAS is using the occasion of its twentieth anniversary to mobilize additional resources for victims.

As we celebrate 20 years since the adoption of the Ottawa Convention, there will be an exhibit on mine action at the Palais des Nations from 21 June to 7 July (Salle des Pas Perdus).  For more information on UNMAS: www.unmas.org  

Co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, in close collaboration with all UN agencies, the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) 2017 takes place at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva this week (12-16 June) and is expected to welcome more than 2,500 international participants from 150+ countries, thus representing the world's largest annual multi-stakeholder gathering of the information and communication technologies (ICT) for development community.

Serving as a key platform for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, this year's forum will focus on sustainable development trends and inclusive ICT initiatives tackling a wide range of issues, from access and digital divide, health, education, the environment, cultural diversity, infrastructure and innovation.

The programme of WSIS Forum is completely crowdsourced by multistakeholder community, representing the government, private sector, civil society, academia and international organizations, providing an opportunity for information exchange, knowledge creation and sharing of best practices, while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships, taking into account the evolving information and knowledge societies.

The WSIS Forum 2017 agenda features more than 200 specialized workshops covering a wide array of topics identified through a participatory process with WSIS stakeholders. As part of this, there will be a special stream on virtual reality (VR) for development sessions, while coders from around the world are invited to participate in a special Hack for Health focused on highlighting e-health. Some of the innovations this year is the WSIS Photo Contest which provides opportunity to the multistakeholder community to picture how ICTs are playing an enabling role in achieving the SDGs, while TEDxGeneva will bring inspirational talks about the future crossroads.

In the context of leveraging the power of ICTs in support of the SDGs on the ground, for the sixth year in a row the prestigious WSIS Prizes contest continues to recognize outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies around the globe. Based on the results of over 1.1 million online votes that were cast for 345 nominated projects, 18 winners will be awarded during this year's WSIS Forum.

The winner of WSIS Forum Photo Contest is from Mexico. "ICTs provides equal opportunities for a better future" represent an interactive session on robotics in Mexico, which aims to give children insight and develop their ICTs skills from an early age. Puntos Mexico Conectado Project seeks to bridge the digital divide in order to increase the access to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and maximize the endless possibilities they have to offer. The PMC program achieves this objective by installing one center in each state of Mexico, generally located in areas that are highly marginalized with elevated poverty rates. In this way, the program benefits those who are less likely to have access to either connectivity or computers in their everyday life.

(text provided by ITU)

2017 marks the centenary of the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

On this occasion, the Gustave Ador Foundation organizes a conference Action humanitaire & quête de la paix at International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum from 8 to 10 June 2017.

A new international campaign to improve predictions of weather, climate and ice conditions has been launched.

The Year of Polar Prediction is spearheaded by the World Meteorological Organization and a wide array of partners around the globe. The WMO explains that even though the poles influence weather and climate conditions in lower latitudes where hundreds of millions of people live, the Arctic and Antarctic are the world’s most poorly observed regions.

It is therefore expected that advances in polar prediction will lead to improved weather forecasts and climate predictions for both Polar regions and densely populated countries. During the campaign, the number of routine observations will be enhanced, coordinated aircraft campaigns and satellite missions will be carried out and new automatic weather stations will be installed at different polar locations.

Since 2008, the internationally recognized photographer Jean Gaumy has accompanied scientists studying climate change and global warming in the Arctic on various research missions and most recently with the Bebest project. This Arctic ice landscape was taken in 2012. Gaumy says "Documenting this is perhaps even more important than documenting war." Magnum member, he signs the book "D'après Nature", a personal voyage from Arctic to Chernobyl, Xavier Barral Publishing. 

Five years ago, governments, pharmaceutical companies, NGOs and various stakeholders set themselves the ambitious target of controlling or eliminating 10 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) by 2020. Last April, the NTD 2017 Summit marked both the WHO's roadmap on NTDs and the London Declaration 5th anniversaries. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), one of the 20 original endorsers of the London Declaration, presented the progress made in the fight against sleeping sickness over time.

Established in 2003, DNDi is a collaborative not-for-profit research and development organization that aims to address the needs of neglected patients. It focuses on discovering and developing treatments for diseases including sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, filarial infections, mycetoma, paediatric HIV and hepatitis C.

According to the WHO, over 1 billion people, often the world’s poorest are infected with a neglected tropical disease. DNDi underlines that “for many of these diseases; treatments don’t exist, or are woefully inadequate. Also, given there is no commercial motive to invest in research and development to bring new treatments to market, alternative models of innovation are needed to bring new drugs to patients.”

Since its inception, DNDi has developed and made available to patients seven new treatments, as well as building a significant drug pipeline for NTDs, with around 15 entirely new chemical entities with notably the support of the canton of Geneva, through its International Solidarity bureau. The organization says that “the end is in sight for one new drug candidate in particular: fexinidazole. With clinical trials in the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly completed, DNDi hopes to move forward, with the industrial partner Sanofi, with the registration of this drug sometime in 2017. If successful, this would be the first oral treatment for sleeping sickness and could contribute to the elimination of the disease.”

The NTD Summit in Geneva thus marked the opportunity to celebrate progress made since 2012. Various new commitments were announced, including renewed funding pledges from the UK, Belgium and the Gates Foundation, particularly around sleeping sickness. 

Today, 24 April, the Graduate Institute invites world famous British photographer Don McCullin for a conversation about his life and career with Davide Rodogno, Professor of International History, The Graduate Institute and Lisbeth Koutchoumoff Arman, journalist at Le Temps.

Born in a derelict area of London in 1935, self-taught, Don McCullin had to leave school at the age of 14 to work, and became a photographer almost by accident. “Photography chose me more than I chose photography“, he confesses. Having covered conflicts and battlefields in Cyprus, Congo, Vietnam, Biafra, the Middle-East, Bangladesh, El Salvador, and more recently in Iraq and Syria, he is acclaimed as one of history's greatest war photographers. He is the author of over a dozen books and recently published an updated edition of his best-selling autobiography Unreasonable Behaviour (Jonathan Cape, London, 2015). McCullin is the recipient of numerous highly prestigious awards and was given a knighthood by Queen Elisabeth II. He recently revisited his life’s work — his war pictures as well as his landscapes of the British countryside — and published a large-size three-volume limited edition retrospective under the title Irreconcilable Truths.

For International Geneva, Don McCullin chose this photograph of a twenty-four-year-old mother and her child during the civil war in the secessionist province of Biafra in Nigeria at the end of the sixties. Don McCullin along with his friend and competitor, French photographer Gilles Caron, were among the handful of photographers who covered the conflict and the terrible famine that resulted. Their work helped to raise awareness in the international public opinion and bring support to humanitarian operations initiated by NGOs such as Oxfam, and also Concern and Médecins sans frontières (MSF) that were born of the conflict.

“When I first went to war, I thought it was very exciting and adventurous. After a while, I discovered it was at the cost of terrible suffering. It was not until I went to Biafra, and walked into those camps and saw dying children that I started realising that the war itself is not what we should be talking about. We should be talking about the innocent bystanders. I do not know if this mother and child survived. At the time it was very difficult to find out.“

What is the situation in South Sudan? How severe is the crisis in Nigeria? How many people are internally displaced in Afghanistan? The new ACAPS CrisisAlert app aims to provide the answers easily.

Established in 2010, ACAPS is a non-profit project, helping the humanitarian sector to better understand the world’s crises and is supported by Action against Hunger International, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children International. While the mission of ACAPS has remained the same, the way to achieve it has changed massively over the years. The new app crystallises this new approach.

When ACAPS started, exactly at the same time as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, it sent experts in crisis contexts to better understand the situation and the priority needs. Over the years analysis of existing information has taken over the data collection. “What makes the difference is not collecting data but making sense of it. You can have hundreds of reports, but if you don’t know how to interpret them, it’s useless and time consuming,” said Lars Peter Nissen, ACAPS Director.

Back in 2010 when the earthquake ravaged Haiti, ACAPS sent two experts to conduct field assessment. “During two weeks we conducted more than 200 questionnaires in affected areas. We released our final report two month after the earthquake. This report did not help donors or emergency managers to take any decision. It was way too late to inform them,” said Patrice Chataigner, ACAPS Senior Analyst.

Today ACAPS has a team of 12 analysts monitoring, analysing, ranking and updating developments on a daily basis on more than 40 humanitarian crises. With the new app, ACAPS wants to take another step towards enabling humanitarians to make more informed, quicker decisions and better address the world’s disasters.

This picture was taken in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a few days after the devastating earthquake that occurred in 2010 by Moises Saman, Magnum Photos member: “As a photojournalist I am interested in searching for the positive commonalities in human spirit, to expose those intimate moments among people that remind us of dignity and hope in the face of conflict.”

He signs the book "Discordia", a four-year body of work in the Middle East during the "Arab Spring". The work featured in Discordia has received numerous awards, including the 2015 Guggenheim Grant for Photography, the Eugene Smith Memorial Fund (2014) and the World Press Photo (2014). 

On March 24th, a small group of innovators hosted the Geneva Global Goals Innovation Day (G3iD) - a single day of radical collaboration dedicated to co-creating, accelerating and scaling solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Starting with solutions from over 100 organizations, more than 800 participants came to join in making a better world.

The G3iD team is an association made up of individuals co-creating together - initially from organizations like ITC, Impact Hub Geneva, the Global Humanitarian Lab, Pangloss Labs, ThePORT, and soon joined by others.

G3iD wishes to demonstrate the value of innovation methods of co-creation, harnessing the power of international Geneva. 20 Co-creation Factory sessions worked on creating new shareable solutions to SDG-related problems. Over 60 international organizations, local associations and local startups shared their solutions in the "Solutions Fair". The results of these sessions will soon be available online at the G3iD Solutions Hub.

On 15 March, Angelina Jolie, the world-leading actress and UNHCR Special Envoy, discussed the necessity of internationalism in a lecture at Palais des Nations. Her talk was organized by the Graduate Institute and the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation to honor the memory of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. diplomat killed in Iraq in 2003.

Ms Jolie strongly underlined that “there is only one choice, demanded by reason as well as by conscience, which is the hard work of diplomacy and negotiation and reform of the UN”. Describing herself as “a proud American and an internationalist”, she explained that being an internationalist meant “seeing the world with a sense of fairness and humility, and recognizing our own humanity in the struggles of others”. She added that “a world in which we turn our back on our global responsibilities will be a world that produces greater insecurity, violence and danger for us and for our children.”

Ms Jolie also discussed the challenges of UN reform with Lyse Doucet, BBC International Correspondent and Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 

The event also featured a piano recital by Elisso Bolkvadze, UNESCO Artist for Peace. 

AQUA, the latest art project of ART for The World, is a worldwide traveling exhibition curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg which centers on environmental issues related to water, engaging a selection of works by 32 contemporary artists as a tool for reflecting on the role that this vital resource plays in our lives.

According to the UN-Habitat World Cities Report 2016: Urbanization and development "by 2030, global demand for water is expected to grow by 50%", AQUA aims to emphasize our collective responsibility on the role and use of water in our world today, where water management is a major challenge and a priority objective of the 21st century.

The exhibition will be inaugurated in Geneva on World Water Day, 22 March 2017. It will be open to the public on 23 March at two venues - at the museum of the Château de Penthes (until 2 July), and on Rousseau Island in the heart of Geneva (until 31 May).

Featured in the show, Fuori Registro by Italian artist Luca Pancrazzi, "this painting reminds us that water is omnipresent" explains the curator. "It flows on Earth, in pipes, rivers, lakes and seas. At the same time, water dominates us, as in the magnificent and impressive high-level clouds depicted, the culmination of the artist's two-year research of the mountains and valleys of the Swiss Engadine region". 

The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) turns 15 this year. With 134 events in Geneva and 300 guest speakers from 62 countries, the FIFDH is recognized as the premiere international event of its kind. The festival will take place from 10 to 19 March 2017 to coincide with the main session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Thanks to support from its 128 partners, the FIFDH offers a fascinating programme of films, debates and talks by Swiss and international experts, civil society activists, filmmakers, writers, photographers and artists, as well as exhibitions, music and theatre. Two international juries, presided by UNESCO goodwill ambassador Deeyah Khan and contemporary artist Mounir Fatmi, will award prizes in the documentary and fiction categories.

As part of the festival, an open-air exhibition organized by Act on Your Future Foundation will showcase the work of finalists from the two first editions of the Human Rights Photography Prize. The exhibition will be installed in the pedestrian section of rue du Mont-Blanc from 9 to 29 March 2017.

The work above, by Judith Hunziker, is entitled "Rebuilding". A graduate in visual communication from HEAD - University of Art and Design Geneva, Judith Hunziker addresses the issue of migration through the eyes of Syrian refugees in Leipzig, Germany. "They are progressively discovering the city that will become their home. Their former lives are still very present in their memories; parts of Leipzig remind them of Aleppo, Raqqa or Damascus," she explains.

View the full programme 

22 February 2017 marked an important milestone in the history of global trade - the entry into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Ambassadors from Rwanda, Chad, Jordan and Oman presented World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo with their countries' TFA instruments of acceptance, bringing the number of ratifications over the threshold needed for the deal to take legal effect.

The TFA is the first multilateral trade treaty adopted in Geneva in two decades and the first such agreement concluded under the auspices of the WTO. The WTO says that “it promises to help reduce trade costs for WTO members by nearly 15% on average, with the greatest gains concentrated in developing and least developed countries. It could boost global trade by up to US$1 trillion each year - an impact greater than the elimination of all existing tariffs worldwide.”

The idea behind the TFA is to remove barriers to trade and cut red tape, which significantly increase the costs of trade. According to WTO, “in developing and least developed countries, these costs are the equivalent of applying a 219% tariff on international trade.” To achieve these reductions, WTO members have committed to improve transparency and predictability of trading across borders and to create a less discriminatory business environment. For example, members will improve the availability of information about cross-border procedures, reduce fees and formalities connected with the import/export of goods, and ensure faster customs clearance.

The agreement also allows developing and least-developed countries to set their own timetables for implementing the TFA depending on their capacities to do so. A Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) was created at the request of developing and least-developed countries to help ensure they receive the assistance needed to reap the full benefits of the agreement.

In 2006, the photographer and filmmaker Michael Christopher Brown took this view of the Port of Shenzhen, one of the most important ports in terms of China's international trade. Member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency, Brown is known for his work on the 2011 Libyan Civil War that led to the monograph Libyan Sugar: "a young man's personal journey going to war for the first time". 

The Think Tank Hub together with On Think Tanks launched, last January, the first edition of the Winter School for Thinktankers. It is addressed to young and proactive individuals who are committed to developing their knowledge and understanding of think tanks and preparing themselves to become policy entrepreneurs. 

Participants flew in from across the world to engage in this kick-off training, reflecting on the role think tanks play in policy making and strengthening democratic processes across the globe. Learning themes included the development of a research agenda, tools for communication, the importance of monitoring and evaluating and impact, financial management and funding, as well as the role of governance. 

The organizers developed a practically-oriented learning format, with real life examples, where participants could easily interact with organizations and take home practical tools. The picture above shows Emilia Pasquier, Director of foraus, speaking about grassroots movements. 

A core competency developed across the week revolved around choosing a team based on the fact that: "to be a successful think tank leader one cannot rely on being simply a great researcher and intellectual. Leaders must be excellent managers, political strategists, great communicators, and prolific networkers."

On 6 February 2017, The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) presented the results of a study about the effects of different weapons currently used in populated areas: “Characterisation of Explosive Weapons”.

According to the organization, over the last years, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas has significantly increased. Those weapons, originally designed for use in open battlefields, have devastating effects on civilians and infrastructure. Aleppo and Homs in Syria, as seen in the picture above, are recent examples of these effects. 

The study has the aim of better informing the impact of explosive weapons in populated areas. It looks at various effects which impact civilians and infrastructures. It also highlights challenges in accuracy and precision as well as possible measures to better control the impact of these weapons. 

The findings of the study are consolidated in a final report and 5 annexes. The project was guided and advised by a group of 18 international specialists and practitioners from the humanitarian, policy, advocacy and legal fields.  More than 100 incidents were recorded and analyzed. In Spring 2017, the study will be completed by a 3D effects simulator to better assess and illustrate the level of damage created by the different weapon systems. 

All the findings can be found on the all-new website 

On 8 February 2017, DiploFoundation - with the support of the canton of Geneva, Twiplomacy and the Geneva Internet Platform - will present the Geneva Engage Awards 2017. The Awards will highlight the permanent missions, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations that have been most effective in their social media outreach over the past year. The event will provide a space where award-winning organizations can share their experience, and where other relevant initiatives can be discussed, including the Perception Change Project, Twiplomacy, and GovFaces.

The Geneva Engage Awards were launched in 2016 during the Geneva Engage Conference. This conference addressed the need to foster effective links between International Geneva and the communities worldwide that are affected by the policies discussed in Geneva. An important aspect of this link is the use of social media, in its ability to reach millions of people worldwide.

DiploFoundation works towards increased effectiveness and inclusiveness in diplomacy. Throughout this effort, it continuously seeks to harvest the opportunities provided by digital technologies for diplomacy, such as in the form of e-participation and Internet governance, and by operating the Geneva Internet Platform.

Amongst the winners, the World Health Organization (WHO) will be awarded as the top international organization in innovative and efficient use of social media. To register online please visit www.diplomacy.edu/calendar/geneva-engage-awards-2017 and join the discussion on twitter #GenevaEngage

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently released the African Elephant Status Report 2016. The report provides vital information on changes in elephant numbers, indicating where they are occurring and enabling scientists to identify drivers of population decline and implement effective, targeted conservation action.

The report, which was launched during the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), reveals some alarming findings: in recent years African elephants have experienced their worst decline in 25 years, mainly as a result of poaching, with a shocking 50% reduction in numbers in eastern Africa since 2006. According to the report, the surge in poaching for ivory which began approximately a decade ago – the worst that Africa has experienced since the 1970s and 1980s – has been the main driver behind this decline, reducing African elephant numbers by an estimated 111'000 individuals overall. Habitat loss has also been identified as an increasingly serious, long-term threat to the species.

The IUCN – a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations – is a reference on the status of the natural world and the ways to safeguard it. IUCN's six commissions, comprising experts from its various member organisations, focus on a wide array of issues including species survival.

Through a series of epic panoramas published in his book "Inherit the Dust" (Edwynn Houk Editions, 2016), renowned wildlife photographer Nick Brandt records the impact of man on places where animals used to roam, but no longer do. In each location, Brandt erects a life size panel of one of his animal portrait photographs, setting it within a landscape of rapid urban development, factories, wasteland and quarries. In this photo series, Brandt also shows that the people in the images, who are generally oblivious to the presence of the panels and the animals featured on them, are victims of this situation as much as the animals.

The second edition of the manual entitled "Management of dead bodies after disasters: a field manual for first responders", a collaborative effort between the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), was launched on 1 November. The manual aims to promote the proper and dignified management of dead bodies and facilitate their identification by offering guidelines for first responders, often from local communities, in disaster situations.

Bearing in mind the logistical and human constraints arising in such situations, the manual underlines that first responders should allocate a unique code to each body, take photographs and record data as soon as possible, place each corpse in a body bag, and temporarily store them in an orderly way. It also indicates how crucial it is to establish a list of the missing and gather the collected information. Respecting bereaved families is also part of the process. Accurately informing and supporting them goes towards helping to alleviate their suffering.

The first edition of the manual was published back in 2006. It was the result of a discussion initiated a year earlier by the ICRC and PAHO in the aftermath of the tsunami that hit South-East Asia in December 2004, taking the lives of close to 230'000 people. This disaster highlighted the need for clearer and simpler guidelines that non-professional first responders could apply in such massive scale emergency responses.

In early 2005, the internationally recognized photo-journalist Paolo Pellegrin, took this image in Sumatra, Banda Aceh, during his journey to Indonesia to document the devastation left by the tsunami. Member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency, Pellegrin was notably rewarded by the 2016 World Press Photo contest for his multimedia story intituled “Desperate Crossing”. His books include "As I was dying" (Dewi Lewis publishing, 2007) in which he says the following: "When I do my work and I am exposed to the suffering of others - their loss or, at times their death - I feel I am serving as a witness; that is my role and responsibility to create a record for our collective memory."

Achieving food security for all is at the heart of the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) efforts. The objective is to ensure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. FAO's three main goals are: the eradication of food insecurity & malnutrition; the elimination of poverty; and the sustainable management of natural resources.

Global efforts to reach those objectives are already undermined by the impacts of climate change on agriculture - including crops, livestock, forestry, and fisheries. In particular, water scarcity will intensify with climate change and population growth. FAO therefore says that food systems must be put at the centre of climate change action in order to become more productive, sustainable and resilient.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, represents a new beginning in the global effort to stabilize the effects of climate change. The Agreement recognizes the importance of food security in the response to climate change. Indeed, over 90% of the signatory countries focus prominently on the agriculture sector in their planned contributions to adaptation and mitigation. To help put those plans into action, FAO has recently published the "2016 State of Food & Agriculture" report that puts forward strategies, financing opportunities, and key data as well as describing transformative policies that can overcome barriers to implementation.

In Mongolia, FAO has been assisting in the implementation of programmes focusing on enhanced rural development. This includes developing sustainable natural resources techniques for climate change adaptation and mitigation, including forestry management, irrigation systems and actions against desertification.

South Korean photographer Daesung Lee's "Futuristic Archeology" project documents the desertification of certain parts of Mongolia and how it is affecting the nomadic lifestyle of 35% of the population. In these photos, he attempts to recreate a museum diorama by blending together printed billboard images and the actual dried up landscape. The series won various awards including first prize at the Cortona on the Move International Photography Festival 2015, the Barcelona International Photography Awards 2015 and the 2016 Voies off festival in Arles.

The International Gender Champions - Geneva initiative has just celebrated its first anniversary. Its annual report, published on 2 November 2016, reviews its achievements and outlines the way forward for the second year.

In October 2015, the Director-General of UNOG, together with the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and non-governmental organization Women@TheTable, launched the Geneva Gender Champions  (GGC) initiative, a leadership network which encourages collaboration to spur innovative solutions to achieving gender equality. The decision to launch the GGC was based on a common realization that 20 years after the Beijing Declaration, little had changed and that real change in this field required greater visibility at the highest levels.

Each potential Champion signs the Panel Parity Pledge and has to commit to at least two additional and personalized measures destined to advance gender equality within their organization. Over 300 commitments have now been made. Though tailored to each organization, common themes have emerged such as recruitment and promotion of talented women, changes in organizational culture, women's representation on delegations or the development of policies or strategic frameworks on gender and diversity. 

123 Champions have now joined the initiative, of which two thirds are men. 60 are Permanent Representatives, 39 heads of international organizations and 24 heads of civil society organizations including non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and private companies.

An International Gender Champions - New York chapter was launched last month, and others may follow. 

Jackie Nickerson’s series “Farm” came together during the three years the artist spent traveling in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.  These beautifully constructed images highlight the pride and strength of the migrant and plantation workers photographed throughout Southern Africa, while reminding the viewer of their inevitable link to the land they work. Nickerson’s photographs are held in many collections including The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

The above portrait, entitled “Chipo”, is currently included in Jackie Nickerson: August, on view at FotoFocus Biennial through January 23, 2017.

On 22 November 2016, the International Solidarity bureau of the canton of Geneva, in collaboration with the Terre des hommes Foundation, will host a panel discussion on the topic of "The fight against drug abuse in Latin America: Geneva's contribution". The aim of this event is to present to the public a few of the international solidarity projects supported by the canton's anti-drug and anti-addiction fund. 

The canton of Geneva, through its International Solidarity bureau works to promote sustainable development as a means of fighting poverty in developing countries by addressing socio-economic inequalities, discrimination and marginalization. To this purpose, it allocates a portion of the anti-drug fund to development projects led by Geneva-based NGOs in countries in the South. 

From 2014 to 2016, the fund made donations to around 15 projects, primarily in South and Central America, Africa and Asia. With financial support from the fund, Terre des hommes conducted a survey of drug use among young people in prison in six Central American countries. The result of this study will be presented during this event. 

The famous international photojournalist Valerio Bispuri spent 13 years travellingaround South America recording the impact of drugs on impoverished urban communities. From Salvador de Bahia to Asunción, and from Lima to Buenos Aires, his photos document the ravages of drug abuse, while also exploring the psychological and social consequences of poverty in South America. Shot in Salvador de Bahia's Pelourinho neighborhood, this photo is part of a series entitled "Paco", a slang word for a type of drug widely found in low-income neighborhoods of many South American cities. Valerio Bispuri is also known for "Encerrados", his long-term project on prisons in Latin America. His work was featured at the international photojournalism festival Visa pour l'image in 2016.

In 2015, the UN Human Rights Council decided to establish a Forum on human rights, democracy and the rule of law to provide a platform to promote dialogue and cooperation on these areas. Hosted under the theme "Widening the Democratic Space: the role of youth in public decision-making", the first edition of the Forum, organized by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), will explore how youth voices can play a more meaningful role in political and public affairs.

The OHCHR underlines that "Although young people between the ages of 15 and 25 constitute a fifth of the world's population, they largely remain on the sidelines of mainstream politics. Few hold positions of power, especially young women and girls who are under-represented in Parliaments, political parties, electoral processes and public administrations. This poses a real threat to the quality and legitimacy of democratic institutions, which in turn may lead to the disenfranchisement of young people".

This new Forum will offer a unique opportunity to a variety of stakeholders to discuss best practices, opportunities and challenges for youth to participate more effectively in public decision-making. The event will be held on 21 and 22 November at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. All those who are interested to attend and have their say are welcome to register online. 

Amsterdam-based photographer Alex ten Napel (1958, Alkmaar) is renowned for his Alzheimer and Water portraits series. His work has been in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and widely published. Caspar is from his Young Diplomats series, photographed at The Hague Model United Nations in which young students congregate in a copy of a UN General Assembly, their resolutions are sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

From 7 to 11 November 2016 Geneva Peace Week will bring Geneva’s contribution to sustaining peace into the light. By synchronizing meetings on different topics related to the promotion of peace, Geneva Peace Week maximizes synergies between organizations in Geneva whose work focuses on the cross-cutting nature of peace. 

The picture above features one of over 50 events of Geneva Peace Week. With photographs by renowned photojournalist Nick Danziger and texts by award winning author Rory MacLean, the exhibition “Beneath the Carob Trees: The Lost Lives of Cyprus” depicts the efforts undertaken since 1981 by the Committee on Missing Persons’ (CMP) scientists to locate, exhume, identify and return to their families the remains of persons who went missing during the events of 1963-4 and 1974. 

In Cyprus, out of 2,001 missing persons that both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, have agreed to include on the official list, with the help of the United Nations, half have been recovered and to date nearly 700 individuals have been identified and returned to their families for a dignified burial.

The CMP Anthropological Laboratory, anthropologists piece together individual bones to establish the age, sex and height of a missing person. The more complete a skeleton,the easier becomes analysis and identification. ‘It is a human right never to lose one’s identity even after death,’ said CMP anthropologist Theodora Eleftheriou ‘I want people to know of the importance of this work. “Beneath the Carob Trees: The Lost Lives of Cyprus” will be inaugurated on 10 November at the Palais des Nations. The body of work has led to a book under the same name published by Armida Books (English and Greek versions) and Galeri Kültür Yayınları (Turkish version). 

The Geneva Peace Week is a collective impact initiative facilitated by the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studie and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform with the support of Switzerland. Browse the programme. 

On 25 October 2016, the Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation will be launched on the occasion of the first Annual Meeting of Frontline Humanitarian Negotiators. Over 170 professionals, experts and scholars are expected at La Pastorale, to share their experience and perspectives on frontline negotiations. This meeting will contribute orienting the activities of the new Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation for the years to come.

As a joint endeavor between the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), Médecins-sans-frontières (MSF Switzerland) and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the centre aims to the development of a community of practice around humanitarian negotiations. It will focus on the capture, analysis and the sharing of these practices among practitioners on the frontlines of armed conflicts.

It will provide research support to professionals from all humanitarian agencies and organizations on the challenges and dilemmas of frontline negotiations as well as technical support to field practitioners in the planning and evaluation of negotiation processes. It will serve as a hub for peer-to-peer reviews and experiential development exercises.

This picture was taken during the Rwandan genocide on 20 August 1994. About 1’500 Rwandan refugees at the time crossed the Ruzizi Bridge, to get to Zaire where they invade the city of Bukavu. Here the Rwanda-Zaire border is temporarily closed. As revealed in the picture, frontline negotiations take place in tense and insecure environments, the results of which are often life-saving operations for the population concerned. 

The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. As a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases, the Global Fund mobilizes and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs in more than 100 countries.

The Global Fund released its Results Report 2016, which showed its programs have saved 20 million lives. The report, with cumulative results from 2002 to the end of 2015, also showed there have been one-third fewer deaths from AIDS, TB and malaria in the countries where the Global Fund invests. The partnership is on track to reach 22 million lives saved by the end of 2016.

These achievements are a result of Global Fund investments in programs designed and implemented by local experts across the world. The investments provided 9.2 million people with antiretroviral therapy for HIV, 15.1 million people with testing and treatment for TB, and 659 million mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Consequently, the programs have averted 146 million new infections from the three diseases since 2012.

To raise funds to continue its work, the Global Fund organizes a Replenishment Conference every three years. In this year’s Replenishment Conference hosted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in Montreal on 16-17 September, the Global Fund secured pledges of more than $12.9 billion from partners across the world. The amount raised will save 8 million lives, avert 300 million infections, and help build resilient and sustainable systems for health.

In 2009 the documentary photographer John Rae was commissioned by the Global Fund to report on Malaria in Tajikistan. Here, the Shomrodov family are having evening tea in their garden while sitting under their insecticide-treated net. Malaria was eliminated in the country in the 1980s, but it reappeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since 2000, cooperation between international partners, including the Global Fund, has led to a steady decline in the number of malaria cases. Today, Tajikistan is once again close to eliminating malaria.

In the run-up to World Health Day on 7 April 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a one-year campaign, starting today 10 October, on the theme of depression. Through the campaign, WHO, together with partners, will provide substantial information about this illness, its causes and possible consequences, including suicide, and what help is or can be available for prevention and treatment. The overall goal of the initiative is that more people with depression, in all countries, seek and get help.

According to the WHO, every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide. It's report "Preventing suicide: a global imperative" points out that “in richer countries, three times as many men die of suicide than women do, but in low - and middle-income countries the male-to-female ratio is much lower at 1.5 men to each woman”(…) “With regard to age, suicide rates are highest in persons aged 70 years or over for both men and women in almost all regions of the world. In some countries, suicide rates are highest among the young, and globally suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds. Yet, suicides are preventable”.

“The impact on families, friends and communities is devastating and far-reaching, even long after persons dear to them have taken their own lives. Unfortunately, suicide all too often fails to be prioritized as a major public health problem. Despite an increase in research and knowledge about suicide and its prevention, the taboo and stigma surrounding suicide persist and often people do not seek help or are left alone” wrote Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO in the foreword to the aforementioned WHO report.

In the WHO Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, WHO Member States have committed themselves to working towards the global target of reducing the suicide rate in countries by 10% by 2020.

On 31^st January 2007, after a long period of depression and at the age of 72, André Penteado’s father, José Octavio, took his own life. This tragic event was the starting point for two projects developed by the photographer in the following years. “Dad’s Suicide” explores Penteado’s immediate response to his loss. It includes a series of 52 self-portraits in which he wears all the clothes his father left. The second project called “I Am Not Alone” is the result of a shared experience with people he met in a support group for those who lost a loved one to suicide. "Dad's Suicide" the book.

Through a global network of more than 200 local correspondents, experienced editors and analysts, IRIN provides insider multimedia news and analysis about humanitarian issues.

In March 2016, IRIN sent a team of journalists – Amanda Sperber, Will Miller, Alex Pritz and Ashley Hammer – to rebel-held territory in Sudan's Blue Nile State to document the toll of the conflict.

IRIN Africa Editor Obi Anyadike said "They found a region depopulated by violence, stalked by hunger, and abandoned by the international aid community. Tucked away in the remote southeastern corner of Sudan, a war is under way that is largely overlooked. The struggle in Blue Nile pits the government in Khartoum against rebels that are fighting for their independence. The humanitarian fallout is immense, but it doesn't attract the same level of international attention as the conflict in Darfur to the west, or the crisis in neighbouring South Sudan, although the violence is inextricably linked".

The multimedia web special, "Blue Nile – Sudan's forgotten front", is an in-depth examination of the crisis through the testimonies of civilians, soldiers, smugglers – and a hyena named Kafe. The photo above is from a rebel training camp, where IRIN witnessed young recruits being put through their paces as part of a graduation ceremony. "As people flee their homes and peace deals fizzle, both sides continue to gear up for war", said Anyadike.

After nearly 20 years as part of the United Nations, IRIN recently spun off to become an independent NGO. On 12 October, the official launch of its new headquarters at 3 Rue de Varembé will bring together diplomatic missions, Swiss authorities, NGOs, UN agencies and the media to mark IRIN's establishment in Geneva. The photo above will be part of an exhibition on display at the launch.

To know more about IRIN, visit www.irinnews.org and to subscribe to IRIN's Newsletter 

The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), an autonomous institute within the United Nations, conducts research on disarmament and security with the aim of assisting the international community in their disarmament thinking, decisions and efforts. Based in Geneva, UNIDIR seeks to forward arms control and disarmament, contribute to conflict prevention and promote the development of a peaceful and prosperous world.

Unlike other weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons are not yet legally banned. In February 2016, UNIDIR published a major study entitled "A Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons: A guide to the issues", in partnership with the International Law and Policy Institute of Norway. It assesses what a prohibition of nuclear weapons could plausibly constitute, why and how it might be pursued, and maps out the arguments both for and against doing so. This study was widely noted at an open-ended United Nations working group tasked with recommending how to take forward nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Last month, and informed by the study, the group recommended that the General Assembly start "to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination" in 2017.

Swiss-based artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger recreated some of the world's memorable photographs of history's iconic moments. "Icons" is a metaphorical project that questions us on the power of photography. Those meticulous scale models invite us to watch carefully and spot the difference between real and fake in today's digital era.

"Icons" has recently been awarded the Broncolor Prize – Light 2015-2016 and is currently shown at the Visual arts biennial Festival Images in Vevey, Switzerland. 

As the WTO's flagship event, the annual Public Forum is an ideal platform to influence the debate about the future shape of the global trade agenda. 2016, marks the 15th anniversary of the Forum. It has become well-established as a unique opportunity for governments, leading global business people, academics, and non-governmental organizations to discuss some of the major trade and development issues of the day.

The Public Forum will be held from 27 to 29 September under the theme 'Inclusive Trade', putting the focus on how to ensure that trade benefits to all. The organization underlines that at a time when the business environment is changing and global growth is slow, it is more important than ever to ensure that trade is truly inclusive, and that the global trading system supports all countries and all businesses to trade. 

In a world where new technologies have transformed the way the world trades, the Forum will also look at how the trading system can support innovation. It will be putting a particular emphasis on enabling women, innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to access the opportunities that trade can provide.
To join the discussion on twitter #InclusiveTrade #WTOPublicForum 

The renowned Iranian artist, Shadi Ghadirian, focusses on the issue of contemporary Iranian women identity within the settings of tradition, as shown in both her series "Qajar" (1998) and "Domestic Life" (2002). The "Ctrl+alt+del" series is about the tiny icons on our computer and the power they exert on us, how “they transformed us” and how “they are unique to our era; to today's woman in a modern world”.

Her photographs are to be found in several public collections such as the British Museum, London; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; The MUMOK, Vienna; the Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris. 

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC) is a Geneva-based research and policy think tank founded in 2011. Comprised of a network of over 150 global policymakers, law enforcement, humanitarian and development practitioners, and expert analysts, the Global Initiative undertakes catalytic research and facilitates expert dialogues to strengthen multi-sectorial responses to organised crime and mitigate its most deleterious impacts.

On the 24th August, after more than five decades of conflict and three years of negotiations, the Colombian government and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) rebel group reached a peace agreement. To provide a foundation upon which to assess current and future planning and frameworks within a context of a post-peace agreement, the GITOC and the Geneva Peace building Platform hosted a seminar entitled "The FARC peace process – ushering in a new chapter in Colombia's history of crime and violence?"

According to the organization "while the peace deal should signal an end to the political violence of the FARC, the criminal economies they control, estimated to be worth up to a billion dollars a year, will not just disappear. The FARC are heavily involved in the drug trade, controlling up to 70 per cent of Colombia's coca production worth billions of dollars, as well as illegal mining and extortion".

The seminar showcased Jeremy McDermott, Executive Director of Insight Crime, an Americas-based organized crime observatory, to elucidate the implications of Colombia's reconfiguring criminal economy. He explained, that "A peace agreement will affect control over Colombia's illicit industries, and criminal actors are positioning themselves to take over FARC revenues". He also warned, "The elements in the rebels are likely to criminalize and go into business for themselves, and competition may cause levels of violence to increase rather than decline".

A full report "Post-Peace: Colombia’s Changing Criminal Landscape” will be published on the Global Initiative website in mid-October. 

In May 2016, the internationally recognized documentary photographer, Federico Rios set out to document the FARC. This picture was taken during the front leader's birthday. Rios reported to the British Journal of Photography, "The rebel group is present virtually everywhere in Colombia. They have extensive knowledge about the jungle and are a mix of different ethnic and social backgrounds — farmers, academics, indigenous people, afros, and mestizos. Besides, 40% of the FARC are female". Federico Rios focuses on social issues in Latin America. He is a member of the curatorial committee of @everydaymacondo Instagram Project and of Colectivo +1. 

As the nature of violent conflict is changing and growing increasingly complex, discussions around solutions have become more technical and confined to the realm of politics and security. As a result, many individuals do not perceive the opportunity to practically contribute to building peace and resolving conflict. But even in the most hostile and challenging environments, there are many peace initiatives taking place that don't receive the attention they deserve.

The 4th edition of the Geneva Peace Talks, organized under the theme « Peace Happens » will look to bring these initiatives and the people behind them to light. Speakers coming from diverse backgrounds will share their personal experiences, stories and ideas to highlight how « Peace Happens » This event aims to highlight that everyone can contribute to peace – be it at home or in a far-away conflict zone. The Peace Talks symbolically stand for a Geneva spirit to resolve conflict through dialogue and negotiation.

The Geneva Peace Talks will be held on the International Day of Peace 21 September. The United Nations General Assembly has declared this a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.

This year's Geneva Peace Talks are co-organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and Interpeace, in partnership with the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the Global Shapers Community Geneva.

The Iranian artist Gohar Dashti's series « Today's Life and War » emerged from her experiences during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. For Dashti: « This conflict has had a strong symbolic influence on the emotional life of my generation. Although we may be safe within the walls of our homes, the war continues to reach us through newspapers, television and the Internet. This body of work represents war and its legacy, the ways in which it permeates all aspects of contemporary society. I capture moments that reference the ongoing duality of life and war without precluding hope. In a fictionalized battlefield, I show a couple in a series of everyday activities. Though they do not visibly express emotion, the man and woman embody the power of perseverance, determination, and survival ». Gohar Dashti's work will be shown at the 6th edition of the Daegu Photo Biennale and the Chobi Mela IX Photography Festival in Dhaka.

To attend the Geneva Peace Talks please visit the www.genevapeacetalks.ch and join the discussion on twitter #GVAPeacetalks

The event is made possible with the generous support of the Swiss Confederation, the Republic and State of Geneva, the City of Geneva, and Mirabaud Bank. 

Where has the ILO made a difference to the lives of working women and men?

With a portfolio of more than 600 projects worldwide in collaboration with 120 development partners, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is making decent work a reality for men and women in more than 100 countries.

Its latest results report outlines the projects and programmes working to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, the enhancement of social protection and the strengthening of dialogue on work-related issues. 

WHO and partners act to cut in half 7 million deaths annually

The equation is simple: 7 million people a year die from air pollution-related diseases and many air pollutants also damage the climate. The World Health Organization (WHO), the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the Government of Norway are leading “BreatheLife”, a global campaign to halve these deaths and slow the rate of global warming by 2030.

According to the organization, air pollution is the root of some of our most common illnesses, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke and heart disease. It is the single biggest environmental health crisis we face. “BreatheLife” raises awareness about ways to clear the air through actions in key sectors such as transport, energy and housing, and in homes and cities. Practical, affordable interventions can reduce short-lived climate pollutants and gain health and climate benefits if people. Through this campaign, the organization calls for global action.

To celebrate the International Youth Day on 12 August, ten Geneva-based organizations shared examples of their work advancing opportunities for the youth from education and training, to the participation of young refugees in the Rio Olympics. Creating a ripple effect, the organizations contribute towards giving young people a voice, training teachers on organic agriculture, improving nutrition, and providing youth with entrepreneurship and ICT skills to help shape a sustainable future.

This collective infographic crowd-sourced by the Perception Change Project (PCP) is part of its monthly impact infographic series. 

The road to sustainability

The world's urban population is currently estimated at approximately 3.8 billion people and is projected to reach 5 billion by 2030. In this context, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) works to promote compact, inclusive, resilient, smart and sustainable cities.

This includes improving urban planning and housing; promoting connectivity and key performance indicators for smarts cities; increased energy efficiency and the use of sustainable energy; reducing congestions and the emissions of the transport sector by promoting green and healthy mobility; improving air quality by reducing significantly the emission of pollutants; and initiatives to promote the green economy.

As a platform for international dialogue and cooperation, UNECE helps countries to convene and cooperate to find joint solutions to these challenges. 

For the first time, a team of refugees is competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Backed by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the team was created to bring global attention to the magnitude of the global refugee crisis and act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide. The initiative comes at a time when more people than ever – 65.3 million at last count – have been forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution.

The team of athletes includes two Syrian swimmers, two judokas from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a marathoner from Ethiopia and five middle-distance runners from South Sudan. They all fled violence in their countries and sought refuge in places as wide-ranging as Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Kenya and Brazil.

Fit and set for an appointment with history, the 10 athletes will march under the Olympic flag ahead of host nation Brazil in the grand opening ceremony. 

On 30 June 2016, the UN Human Rights Council voted to appoint an Independent Expert to investigate and report on human rights abuses against individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It is the first time that the Human Rights Council - or any UN inter-governmental body - has established a mandate specifically dedicated to protecting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The proposal to establish the role of an Independent Expert was contained in a resolution proposed by seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay). The resolution was adopted by vote with 23 States voting in favour of the proposal.

The decision reflects growing awareness of the scale and scope of violence and discrimination directed at LGBT and intersex people. In a series of reports issued over the past five years, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has exposed wide-spread human rights violations, including hate-motivated killings, physical attacks, sexual assaults, torture, bullying, arbitrary arrest and detention, and discrimination in access to basic goods and services. According to the same reports, in 73 countries, same-sex relationships are punishable under the criminal law, exposing millions of people to blackmail, extortion and the threat of arrest, imprisonment or even, in five countries, the death penalty.

In the fall of 2013, while riding a bus, Sasha Fleischman was set on fire. The photographer Chloé Aftel was commissioned by the San Francisco Magazine to shoot the portraits of those who define themselves as non-binary or as agender, refusing to define themselves as strictly male or female. Each portrait was taken in a meaningful place for each subject, revealing distinctive narratives. The "Genderqueer" series notably won the 2014 International Photography Award IPA and the Lens Culture Portrait Award. 

Marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (World Drug Day) on 26 June 2016, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched the 2016 World Drug Report along with promoting the "Listen First" global campaign with the support of WHO and UNAIDS.

Key findings in the report point out that the number of people classified as suffering from drug use disorders has increased disproportionately for the first time in six years. There are now over 29 million people within this category compared to the previous figure of 27 million reported in 2015. However, the number of adults using at least one drug in 2014 – nearly 250 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 years – has not grown over the past four years in proportion to the global population. The report also focuses on the world drug problem in the context of the new Sustainable Development Goals and provides a comprehensive overview of the supply and demand of illicit drugs as well as their impact on health.

Launched during April's UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, the "Listen First" global campaign aims to raise awareness around listening to children and youth as the first step to help them grow healthy and safe. It also reaches out to a wide range of groups including parents, teachers,policy makers, health workers and prevention workers.

Photographer Tony Fouhse spent nine months helping and photographing heroin addict Stephanie M. Just before she was to enter a rehab program Stephanie developed an abscess in her brain, underwent brain surgery and ended up living with Tony and his wife while she withdrew from heroin. This image shows Stephanie sleeping peacefully after 8 days of withdrawal. This encounter led to the book "Live Through This" (photos by Tony, words by Stephanie). 

The jury of the sixth edition of the “ICRC's Humanitarian Visa d'Or prize” has unanimously awarded the Colombian photojournalist Juan Arredondo for his work entitled "Born into conflict: child soldiers in Colombia". Since 2014, he has been exploring the fate of fighters recruited illegally into armed groups in his country. More than half of them are girls, some as young as nine.

For Nick Danziger, chair of the jury: "Beyond the high professional standard of the work, I was particularly touched by the portrayal of these young women whose childhood and adolescence have been defined by violence and war”.

The ICRC has been in Colombia for over 40 years dealing with the consequences of the armed conflict and other situations of violence. According to the ICRC “Colombia: humanitarian challenges 2016” report, children and teenagers continue to be recruited and used by weapon bearers. In 2015, they recorded 181 alleged violations of humanitarian rules concerning 2’000 children and teenagers. The same year, 35 minors left armed groups and were able to get in touch with their families with help from the organisation.

By maintaining a confidential dialogue with the parties to the conflict, the ICRC discusses the specific needs and vulnerability of minors. The organisation is also in permanent contact with the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), allowing it to visit the minors in its facilities. Uneducated and mostly without family support, these young women are often unable to resume a normal life. This picture was taken in one of the ICBF centers for demobilized child soldiers in Caldas, where they study agriculture-related disciplines in preparation to return to their communities.

"Born into conflict: child soldiers in Colombia" will be exhibited during the 28th Visa pour l'Image international photojournalism festival in Perpignan, from 27 August to 11 September 2016. 

Delaney Ruston - physician, film maker and mom – questions in her documentary "Screenagers" teenagers' relations to the digital world. Confronted to the demand of her daughter to own a smartphone, the filmmaker explores the issues of social media, video games and other addictions related to the Internet.

Favoring a personal approach – notably through the practices and difficulties encountered in her own family – she questions young screen users' relations to the world. The many interviews of academic experts - whether they are psychologists, brain scientists or new technologies experts – suggest solutions allowing young people to navigate the digital universe avoiding its pitfalls.

This documentary is one of the films which will be shown between 6 and 10 July, within the framework of the 6th edition of CineGlobe International Film Festival at CERN. This year, CineGlobe is partnering with Ciné-ONU and participating in the Night of Science / Nuit de la Science. CineGlobe program can be consulted here. The festival is entirely free and opened to all.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2002. On this occasion, the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) has launched "OPCAT – 10 years of preventing torture" as a year-long campaign to highlight the important changes in law and practice around the world, brought by the global torture prevention system, and to encourage further efforts to protect rights and dignity in detention.

The idea of an international treaty to allow independent monitors to enter prisons, police stations, closed psychiatric institutions and all other places of detention was first launched in 1976 by Geneva banker and philanthropist, Jean-Jacques Gautier. Inspired by the ICRC's visits to detainees, he founded the Swiss Committee against Torture (Comité Suisse contre la torture), which would later become the APT, as a platform to promote the prevention of torture.

By joining the OPCAT, States commit to prevent torture and other ill-treatment of all persons deprived of their liberty. Today, more than 80 States have joined the OPCAT. Amongst the 15 States in Latin America who ratified the treaty, Argentina was the first in 2004. This picture was taken in 2007 by documentary photographer Stefano De Luigi, during the shoot of the movie "Norma Arrostito" directed by Cesar DíAngolillio, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Historical reconstruction, the set draws the "Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada", ESMA.

Stefano De Luigi started the series entitled "Cinema Mundi" in 2006, focusing on the alternative cinematographic scene from Shanghai to Lagos passing through Moscow, Teheran, Buenos Aires, Hyderabad, and Seoul. This work was awarded by the 2008 World Press Photo contest. 

Since its inception, 70 years ago, the Swiss foundation CAUX-Initiatives of Change (CAUX-IofC) has been about creating a space for dialogue, facilitating enriching encounters to inspire, equip and connect people from around the globe towards change. Its conviction has been that only personal change will drive global transformations to create a more just, ethic, secure and sustainable world.

In the frame of its 70^th anniversary, CAUX-IofC organized a Human Library in collaboration with the Library of the United Nations at Geneva, featuring five “Human Books” on the theme “What’s trust got to do with migration?”. Leonard Doyle, Spokesperson for IOM, Melissa Fleming, Chief Spokesperson for UNHCR, Jens Wilhelmsen Norwegian writer and Member of IofC Norway, Imad Karam, Executive Director of IofC Int., and Huruy Gulbet, Eritrean Refugee, student in Geneva, shared their personal stories, each focusing on different issues related to migration and the importance of trustbuilding.

With the support of the Office for Integration of Foreigners of the Republic and State of Geneva and the Inside Out Foundation, the Hospice général at Geneva launched the “There are no walls between us” project to mark the week against racism, and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This project aims to give visibility to the people seeking asylum in Geneva and foster their integration. In this context, the Hospice general commissioned the internationally recognized photojournalist Mark Henley to portray some of the migrants from 15 different countries. On 15 March 2016, 50 portraits were pasted, by the subjects themselves, on the Plaine de Plainpalais.

Swiss Press Photographer of the Year 2012 and 2014 for his work on the Swiss Banking system and the diplomatic negociations on a nuclear deal with Iran, Mark Henley is a regular contributor to International Geneva organizations like UNHCR and Amnesty International. 

The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) is a global call to action by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and takes place in Istanbul on 23-24 May 2016. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), through the WHS secretariat, has been the organisation driving the preparations for the Summit.

OCHA says that, today, more than 130 million people are in need of aid and protection in the world. This includes over 60 million people forcibly displaced. Half of them are children. The resource requirements to address the humanitarian needs have increased six-fold since 2003 to nearly US$21 billion today - and on average, just around 65 percent of these requirements are met.

To determine the agenda for the summit, an extensive worldwide consultation took place involving over 23'000 people, including affected people themselves, in 153 countries between June 2014 and July 2015. These consultations culminated with the Global Consultation, held in Geneva on 14-16 October 2015.

In February 2016, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published his report entitled "One Humanity: Shared Responsibility" in which he calls for the need to place humanity - people's safety, dignity and their right to thrive - at the centre of global decision making. The Secretary-General put forward an Agenda for Humanity that outlines the key actions and strategic shifts necessary to deliver on them, articulated in five core responsibilities: Global leadership to prevent and end conflict; Respect rules of war; Leave no one behind; Working differently to end need, and Invest in Humanity.

At the Summit, world leaders are expected to make major commitments to advance global action including finding solutions to forced displacement, reducing the human cost of crises and building resilience, and mobilizing resources so that all people in need have access to humanitarian assistance and protection. Among the many high-level events at the Summit is one session focusing on "People at the Centre" about affected people as the driving force of any humanitarian response.

In December 2015, the German documentary photographer Kevin McElvaney gave disposable cameras to the refugees he met in Izmir, Lesbos, Athens and Idomeni. The #RefugeeCameras project aims to give a "human face" to this major crisis by allowing the people directly affected to document their own story. Kevin McElvaney explains "Let's try to give the refugees a voice. Let's let them decide, what is important to say and what is not. Let us see the individual behind the anonymous concept of a "refugee" ". Dyab left Syria with his wife and son. He received his camera in the bus taking them from Athens to Idomeni. Until today, 7 out of 15 cameras came back in their prepared envelopes. This ongoing collective work will be shown at the 2016 Retina – Scottish International Photography Festival, in Edinburgh, and The 2016 LUMIX Festival for Young Photojournalism, in Hanover. 

The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) present the first joint global report on the legal status of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 194 WHO Member States. The report, "Marketing of breast-milk substitutes: National implementation of the International Code - Status report 2016", reveals the status of national laws to protect and promote breastfeeding.

According to the report, nearly 2 out of 3 infants are not exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months by WHO and UNICEF- a rate that has not improved in 2 decades. It is also stated that increasing breastfeeding to near-universal levels could save the lives of more than 820 000 children under the age of five each year and would significantly reduce costs for treatment of childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and asthma.

The report reveals that 135 countries have some form of Code-related legal measures in place, an increase from 103 in 2011. However, only 39 countries have legislation incorporating all or most Code provisions, a slight increase from 37 countries in 2011. The report includes case studies on countries that have strengthened their laws or monitoring systems for the Code in recent years like Armenia, Botswana, India and Vietnam.

Inspired by the Old Masters, the series "TT" by the artist photographer Marie-Claire Saille puts in parallel the portraits and testimonies of mothers who have made the choice or not to breastfeed. Fathers were not forgotten, Marie-Claire Saille explains « My project tries to question the issues that lie under this choice (if it is a choice) and to go beyond these judgments by placing a breastfed child and bottle-fed child on the same plane. Fathers have also participated in this project and their testimonies matter. What is their place today with respect to the feeding of their babies? ».

In the aftermath of World War II, Europe was on its knees, and millions were going hungry. The Non-governmental organization, CARE International was set up so that people in the U.S. could send essential CARE packages to those in need across Europe. The first CARE package arrived in Le Havre, France, in May 1946. 70 years later, CARE has 890 projects in 95 countries, touching the lives of more than 65 million people, and has become one of the leading organizations fighting global poverty.

Since 1991, CARE has provided assistance to the refugee population of the Dadaab refugee camp in North East Kenya. For more than a decade, Dadaab has been the world's largest refugee camp with the population reaching over 460'000 people at one point in 2011. The current population is around 350'000 of which 95,2% are Somali and 4,8% comprising of South Sudanese, Eritrea, Ethiopian, Burundian, and Ugandan among others. CARE's main long-term objective has been in empowering the refugee communities by becoming more self-sustaining. CARE in Dadaab has 1'715 staff, 1'543 of which are refugee workers. This allowed refugees to run operations during times of heightened security when the camp has been inaccessible to non-refugee staff.

In 2011, the award-winning photojournalist Luca Catalano Gonzaga set out to document the living conditions of the refugees in the Dadaab camp. He pictured this young woman and her daughters at the UNHCR Registration center. He described « (a) long silent queue, nobody smiles or talks, all are patiently waiting for their turn. Each and every single refugee is photographed and fingerprinted. Identification is the first vital step to aid. It means access to tents, lavatories, drinking water, healthcare facilities and food ».

This reportage entitled « The Hidden Focus » is part of the wider project « Child Survival in a Changing Climate » which aims to show the consequences of climate change on the environment and people's lives, with a particular focus on children. Notably awarded the 15th Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Prize this project has been initiated by the non-profit association Witness Image and funded by Nando Peretti Foundation. In 2009 Luca Catalano Gonzaga was awarded the Grand Prix CARE du Reportage humanitaire for his work on child labour in Nepal, which was presented at the International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l'image. 

The International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (MICR) showcases for the first time the prestigious Prix Pictet. Founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group, this award has established itself as a major award in the field of photography dedicated to sustainability. This sixth edition relates to the theme « Disorder ». Social chaos, political uprisings, and climate disruption are all signs of the disorder that is the core focus of the works of the 12-presented finalists. Kofi Annan, Honorary President of the jury, said during the award ceremony held at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris « Our times are defined by disorder [...] Our mastery over manifold aspects of life has deluded us into thinking that we have bent the planet to our will. Yet the fragility of that assumption is exposed with each new pandemic, earthquake, tsunami or drought. With each passing day, our illusion of order is shattered ».

This picture is part of the series entitled « Culture of the Confrontation » by Ukrainian photojournalist Maxim Dondyuk. This work documents the clashes occurred in Ukraine in 2014. Police forces are shown here on Maidan Nezalezhnosti central square of Kiev on 19 February 2014. Maxim Dondyuk said « In my photos I tried to show the scale of all that happened in the centre of the country. Very often I lost the line between reality and fiction. I forgot the place, time and the cause of what was happening. In one moment the battle scenes remind me of terrible days of the previous wars. In another, frosty, fiery battle turned Maiden Nezalezhnosti into a phantasmagorical place. Carefree, obstreperous Kiev completely lost its familiar features ».

The series « Culture of the Confrontation » was awarded by the 2014 Rémi Ochlik prize given by the City of Perpignan during the International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l'Image. The same year, Maxim Dondyuk was designated as one of Magnum Photos' « 30 Under 30 » emerging documentary photographers. He collaborates with International organizations of which the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The Eduki Foundation aims to promote awareness of international cooperation. The Foundation provides themed and educational tool packs, organizes visits and meetings with experts and offers an overview of professionals operating in the field of international cooperation. The Eduki Foundation is mainly supported by the Canton of Geneva, the Swiss Confederation and the Foundation pour Genève.

During the 2015-2016 school year, the Eduki Foundation invited students from all over Switzerland to discover the Sustainable Development Goals and to commit to their implementation. Over 1'500 students, between 10 and 19 years old, responded to the call. The participants submitted artistic works, videos and ideas for projects. For this fifth edition of the competition, entitled « Sustainable development goals - Imagine the Switzerland of tomorrow », students have once again demonstrated their creativity and desire to commit themselves to issues that affect them directly: water, health, gender equality and peace.

The award ceremony took place on 22 April 2016 at the Palais des Nations under the high patronage of UNOG Director General. Over 700 people attended the presentation of 31 prizes. They were also able to discover the works of all the students displayed in the Serpent Bar area until April 29. Moreover, the same day, a selection of works was presented at the Plaine de Plainpalais, during the « Geneva celebrates Earth » event organized by the City of Geneva

This work entitled « Poésies humanistes » won the 1st prize in the category Artistic Achievement. 49 pupils of the International School of La Grande Boissière of Geneva have put their interest in our contemporary societies' greatest challenges. Throughout fifty paintings, they have expressed their ethical values, their sense of empathy and citizenship with regards to those who suffer from lack of clean water, conflicts, lack of care and racial or gender discrimination. This magnificent work was unanimously acclaimed by the jury. The list of winners is available at: http://www.eduki.ch/fr/prix2016.php 

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has just celebrated the first anniversary of one of the world's most wide-ranging Disaster Risk Reduction Agreement (DRR), the Sendai Framework (2015-2030). It was adopted at the Third UN World Conference for DRR on 18 March 2015, in the Japanese city of Sendai. More than 20 million people worldwide took part in the #switch2sendai online campaign to mark this date.

The Sendai Framework aims to achieve the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health. It also seeks to increase the number of countries with national and local risk reduction strategies, bolster the implementation capacity of developing countries, and enhance multi-hazard early warning systems.

According to UNISDR, between 2005 and 2014, disasters killed 700'000 people, affected 1.7 billion, and caused US$1.4 trillion in economic damage. It underlines that « action that addresses the interlinked challenges of disaster risk, sustainable development and climate change is a core priority given that 90% of recorded major disasters caused by natural hazards from 1995 to 2015 were linked to climate and weather including floods, storms, heatwaves and droughts ». In an interconnected world, a disaster's impact can all too easily be felt far from its epicentre. Some 50 million people around the world were affected by 32 major recorded droughts throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas in 2015. This was a doubling of the number of droughts worldwide by comparison with the annual average between 2005 and 2014.

Internationally recognized for their large-scale projects, the award-winning documentary photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer travelled to 16 countries in all continents to meet those that are directly exposed to the consequences of a changing climate. "The Human Face of Climate Change" project combines the portraits and interviews of over 60 people, published in the book of the same name by Hatje Cantz publishing. Among them, Gouro Modi, a cow herdsman, and his son Dao. Members of the Peul community, from Korientzé, Mali. Gouro confided « We are tired, very tired because the climate has changed. Our homes are far from here. We left because there was not enough rain. It used to rain a lot, but not now. When I was a child, the animals ate well; the people ate well, and everything went well. I'm afraid. All the breeders and shepherds are afraid. If there's no water, we will actually have to dig so that the cows can find water to drink. Our hope is that the water doesn't disappear right away. We pray for the water to come so that the animals can find food to eat ». 

The Geneva Health Forum (GHF), created by the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, will be held from 19 to 21 April 2016 at the CICG. Recognized as one of the main events of this kind in Europe, the GHF is a place for dialogue and major exchanges between field practitioners, university hospitals, international organizations and NGOs as well as the public and private sectors.

This sixth edition, entitled « Global Health: Sustainable and Affordable Innovations in Healthcare », will bring together the greatest experts in the field and give a voice to those active on the frontlines of global health. Among a wide range of issues, this year's program will showcase the numerous ethical dilemmas the healthcare sector had to face during the Ebola virus disease outbreak.

The severity of the West Africa Ebola epidemic saw MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) launch one of the largest emergency operations in its history. MSF responded in the three most affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia – and also to the spread of cases to Nigeria, Senegal and Mali. According to the Ebola 2014-2015 Facts & Figures report, the organization employed nearly 4'000 national staff and more than 325 international staff at the peak of the epidemic. 10'310 patients were admitted to its centres of which 5'201 were confirmed Ebola cases, representing one-third of all WHO-confirmed cases.

In August 2014, Ezekial was confirmed Ebola free and discharged from MSF's ELWA 3 Ebola management centre in Monrovia, Liberia. Shortly after he was informed, he said « I'm going to go play football today ». 

On 11 February 2016, the second edition of TEDxPlaceDesNations: « Transforming Lives » took place at the Palais des Nations. This conference aims to demonstrate, through a series of compelling stories told by a wide range of speakers, the impact of International Geneva’s organisations and individuals on the daily lives of people around the world. This year’s edition showcased the moving and inspiring story of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for the East and Horn of Africa region, Hollywood actor and model Ger Duany.

Born in the town of Akobo in what is now South Sudan, Ger Duany was caught up in Sudan's north-south civil war. Separated from his mother at the age of 13 he became a child soldier as a means of survival, like thousands of other boys during the 1983-2005 conflict. Later he found refuge in a camp in Ethiopia and in Kenya until he was resettled to the United States at the age of 15.

When Ger Duany was named as UNHCR High Profile Supporter in 2014, he said, « During the last 14 months, my country, South Sudan, has seen the displacement of more than 2 million people. Less than four years ago, we experienced the euphoria of independence. I went home to vote in the referendum that led to independence. Never in our worst dreams could we have imagined that our homeland would descend into civil war so quickly; that the nightmares of our childhood would return to hound another generation. ».

The award-winning photojournalist Fabio Bucciarelli focuses on conflicts and the humanitarian consequences of war. He reported from Syria through Libya to South Sudan since its declared independence. In February 2014, with the help of the NGO Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM), he moved from Juba to Yirol, crossing Mingkaman, where he pictured this person carried to a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) temporary hospital near the camp for South Sudanese IDP's. Recipient of the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work « Battle To Death » and recently of the « Exodus » Picture Of the Year award (POY), his five-year project « The Dream » dedicated to those who have fled the wars will be published in May 2016 by FotoEvidence publishing. 

On the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on April 4, 2016, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) is hosting a series of public events at the Maison de la Paix and Place des Nations to promote knowledge and engagement for mine action. In parallel, the GICHD has launched a worldwide awareness campaign under the hashtag #TogetherAgainstMines to bring together mine action organisations, human security actors, donor countries and individuals to show their support for a mine-free world.

According to the 2015 Landmine Monitor report, mines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) caused 3'678 casualties worldwide in 2014, a 12% increase from 2013. Despite ongoing casualties and the significant increase compared to 2013, 2014 still had the second lowest annual total of casualties recorded since 1999.

Dos Sopheap lost her leg at the age of 6 when her mother took her to the military camp where her father was stationed. When the Khmer rouge attacked father and child fled and were both injured by a mine. In 2009 she received a prosthetic limb made in Norway. As of the end of 2013, the Cambodia Mine Victim Information System (CMVIS) had reported at least 64'314 victims in Cambodia since 1979.

The photojournalist Lynn Johnson has been documenting the global human condition for the past 35 years. Her peers have selected her as the winner of the 2013 National Geographic Photographer's Photographer award. World Press Photo, the Open Society Institute and the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights have honoured her work. One of her latest stories entitled « Blast Force : The Invisible War on the Brain », published in National Geographic, documents US war veterans trauma and struggle to recovery. 

The United Nations World Water Development Report titled « Water and Jobs », will be launched on 22 March 2016 in Geneva, during the official World Water Day celebrations at the International Labour Organization (ILO). Each year, UN-Water sets a theme for World Water Day corresponding to a current or future challenge. This year's theme « Water and Jobs » will be focussing on how enough quantity and quality of water can change workers' lives and livelihoods - and even transform societies and economies.

In October 2009, the photographer Stefano De Luigi set out to document one of the most ravaging droughts in Turkana region, in north-western Kenya. This image shows women getting water for their families and cattle from a twenty meters deep borehole, in the Kaitede village. Stefano De Luigi said « I felt I was documenting a terrible memento for all human beings. This tragedy, where animals and people were struggling to survive this terrible drought, was a sort of nightmare vision. A future which could be waiting for all of us if we don't deeply change our habits, if we don't reconsider our way to share the resources of our planet with more sense of responsibility ». The story « Drought in Kenya » was awarded by the 2010 World Press Photo contest and the 2015 Syngenta Photography Award.

De Luigi has also signed the book « Blanco » a five-year body of work that documents the condition of blindness throughout the world, with the patronage of the WHO global initiative Vision 2020: The Right to Sight. 

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) coordinated, jointly with the UN-Habitat, the preparation of the HABITAT III Regional Report on Housing and Urban Development for the UNECE Region. This report is expected to be adopted during the international regional conference European Habitat, organized within the framework of the UNECE, from 16 to 18 March 2016, in Prague.

By 2050, almost two-thirds(66%) of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Today, 75 % of the UNECE region, consisting of 56 Member States, already live in cities. The report elaborated strategic recommendations for addressing urban and housing challenges. It will provide an important regional input into the New Urban Agenda towards The United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development HABITAT III, in Quito, in October 2016.

UNECE Executive Secretary, Mr. Christian Friis Bach, said « Cities are struggling to address issues of the demographic changes, including ageing, migration, security, as well as overcoming multiple economic, financial and social problems. It is therefore also our role to support developing capacities of local authorities to managing cities, encouraging the cooperation of cities with national governments and private sector as well as between different departments of city governments ».

Winner of the Niépce Prize in 2008, the photographer Jürgen Nefzger has been documenting, for nearly 30 years, the changes in the landscape and wondering about "the ambiguities inherent in our societies”. Urbanism, peri-urban and rural areas as well as environmental issues are the main themes he addresses using a medium format camera. This image, taken in Clermont- Ferrand, is part of the series entitled “Nocturnes” published in the book of the same name by Hatje Cantz publishing. 

It all starts with a simple message: « Clean hands save lives ».
Every year hospital-related infections kill 16 million patients. A procedure, disinfecting hands using alcohol-based hand rubs, saves between 5 and 8 millions lives every year. Nicknamed "Doctor Clean Hands" Didier Pittet, Professor of Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology, director of the Infection Control Programme at the University of Geneva Hospitals (HUG), fights since 1995 with his team against nosocomial diseases.

Almost 20 000 health facilities in 179 counties of the 194 United Nations member States have joined the programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) "Clean Care is Safer Care" launched on 13 October 2005, of which Dr Pittet is the Lead Advisor. "Few people know him or have even heard of his name, yet many owe their health and lives to him" wrote Dr. Margaret Chan, General Director of the WHO, in the introduction of the book « Clean hands save lives » by Thierry Crouzet.

The documentary film « Clean Hands », directed by Géraldine André and Stéphane Santini, demonstrates the incredible commitment and determination of a man to make alcohol-based hand disinfection an international standard of health care. It will be screened on Wednesday 9 March 2016, at the Espace Pitoëff, as part of the 14th edition of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH). The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and Professor Pittet. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) audiovisual archives online platform is now available to all. More than 93'000 digitized and downloadable photos, around 1'700 films and over 1'000 audio recordings document the activities of the ICRC and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. From the end of the 19th century up to the present day, these archives have been continually expanded. Their preservation represents a valuable documentary heritage and contributes to remembering the victims of armed conflicts and other situations of violence.

During his journey across Afghanistan for the ICRC in 2009, the famous war photographer James Nachtwey captured this picture featuring detainees held by Afghan authorities. The ICRC has been present in Afghanistan since 1979, working initially in Pakistan for victims of the Afghan conflict, and since 1987 from its delegation in Kabul. The organization reported that 13'000 detainees have seen their living conditions improved in 2015.

More than 200 images from the ICRC archives are published in the book " Humanity in war : frontline photography since 1860 " Editions Lieux Dits, it includes an introduction by James Nachtwey. 

The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Geneva, THE Port Association and Impact Hub Geneva will host their hackathon in the field of human rights, on the 26 and 27 February 2016. The Human Rights DiploHack event will bring together diplomats and human rights experts with tech developers, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs from all over Europe and beyond, to experiment and innovate on projects that directly impact people’s lives.

From the multidisciplinary expertise of the participants, teams will be formed to work on two challenges presented by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “How can Human Right Defenders collect and transport evidence in a safe way?” and “Does a photo or video tell the ‘truth?”. The result will be presented at the Palais des Nations, on 29 February during a side event open to the public on the occasion of the Human Rights Council’s 31st session. For accreditation to this side event, non-UN-badge holders are invited to contact the organizers before 24 February.

Filip Singer, from the European PressPhoto Agency, is the author of this photograph taken on 2 October 2015, near Skala Sikaminias in Lesbos Island in Greece. It was shown in December 2015, during the exhibition "Can you picture Freedom?" conducted by OHCHR as part of its campaign launch “Our rights, our freedoms, always”. The year-long campaign celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Human Rights Covenants. The entire exhibition is featured on the special 50th Anniversary website

Ciné-UN Geneva will screen on February 25, 2016, the documentary film "Human" by photographer and filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Ode to human nature, "Human" is the result of 2020 interviews in 63 languages and 60 countries, interspersed with spectacular aerial images.

Like Korkodi Arsibala, from Suri territory in Ethiopia, featured here, the participants were submitted to the same questions: "Do you feel free? What is the meaning of life? What is the toughest trial you have had to face, and what did you learn from it? ... ". The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film director, at the auditorium Ivan Pictet, at the Maison de la Paix. 

The Webster University 21st International Humanitarian Conference organized in collaboration with the UNHCR and the ICRC, will be held on 18 and 19 February at the CICG in Geneva. This edition, entitled "Toward the World Humanitarian Summit", aims to bring together practitioners, scholars, members of the Geneva-based international community, and representatives of civil society, to address the issues and challenges on the first World Humanitarian Summit agenda, due on May 23 and 24, 2016 in Istanbul. The conference will be held in English and French, and open to all.

Massimo Sestini is the author of this image that remains engraved in the collective memory. On June 7, 2014, he captured the rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Italian Navy’s Mare Nostrum Operation, launched following the Lampedusa shipwreck that occurred on 3 October, 2013. Widely circulated in the media, and international organizations such as the UNHCR, this picture was awarded by the 2015 World Press Photo contest. It has become the focal point of the « Where are you? » project that invites those who recognize themselves or someone they know, to share their story.

Coordinated by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), World Cancer Day is taking place on 4 February under the tagline ‘We can. I can.’ and will be exploring how everyone – as a collective or as individuals – can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer. UICC counts over 900 member organizations across 155 countries representing the world's major cancer societies, ministries of health, research institutes, treatment centres and patient groups.

The photographer Angelo Merendino's late wife Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer five months after their wedding; she passed less than four years later. During this time they found that most people, even those closest to them, did not understand the challenges they were facing every day. In an effort to get their attention, he photographed their daily life. The resulting body of work has led to the creation of a non-profit organization, The Love You Share, formed to assist patients who are receiving treatment for breast cancer.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will be awarded the Geneva Engage Award on 27 January, as the top international and non-governmental organisation in innovative and efficient use of social media. According to the methodology behind the 2015 Geneva Social Media Index (GSMI), DiploFoundation analysed social media activities of the organisations and their reception by the Internet public.

The Geneva Engage Award is conferred in four categories: permanent missions, international organisations, non-governmental actors and grassroots organisations. Geneva Engage Conference will take place on 27 and 28 January 2016 with full online participation. It is still possible to register to participate remotely at http://genevaengage.diplomacy.edu/ The event is organised with the support of the Canton of Geneva, the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN and ICANN. 

On January 14, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia. However, the organisation said that the job was not over. The following day, a new case of Ebola was confirmed in Sierra Leone, reflecting the ongoing risk of new flare-ups of the virus in the Ebola-affected countries.

As part of an awareness campaign launched by Doctors Without Borders in October 2014, the photographer and filmmaker Peter Casaer captured these portraits of aid-workers and filmed the documentary "Affliction". Shot in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, "Affliction" draws the progress of the Ebola virus in West Africa, and shows the impact the virus has had on patients, village leaders, and local and international aid workers.

The discussion panel « Ebola: A Game Change in Global Health? » will be held on Thursday 21 January at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. It will focus on priority reforms that are required in the governance of global health in the aftermath of the Ebola Crisis. 

The 71st session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child will be held in Geneva from 12 to 29 January 2016. The Committee, composed of 18 independent international experts, monitors how States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols are complying with their obligations.

On 20 November 2014, UNICEF launched the #IMAGINE project as part of celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, at the United Nations General Assembly. The project brought together global stars and invited people across the world to record their version of John Lennon’s legendary song Imagine.

On 10, December 2015 - International Human Rights Day – the first Human Rights Photography Award has rewarded the work of five photographers on the theme of freedom of expression. This award was initiated by the Geneva Foundation Act On Your Future in collaboration with ECAL Arts School of Lausanne, Art Bärtschi & Cie gallery and Human Rights Watch.

The young Ticino artist, Simone Cavadini was rewarded for his series entitled Res Pvblica. Pictured with a large format camera, this series shows the Mediaset entertainment studio sets - the greatest Italian commercial broadcaster. 

The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention's conference (14MSP) took place in Geneva from 30 November to 4 December 2015. It insisted that States integrate the care and rehabilitation of landmine survivors into broader disability and human rights contexts, and that mine-affected States steady their efforts to achieve a mine-free world.

The documentary photographer Raphael Dallaporta signs this work of chilling beauty. The decontextualized "portraits" of 35 landmines and their typological captions are the subject of a book entitled Antipersonnel, Editions Xavier Barral and currently shown at the Foto-Forum Gallery, Bolzano.

The following caption accompanies this work: « Antipersonnel Bounding Fragmentation Mine, V-69, Italy. The V-69 can be set off by footfall pressure or through a tripwire. When detonated the fuse sets off propellant gases that fire the mine’s inner body 45cm above the ground. This explodes sending out more than 1,000 pieces of chopped steel. Between 1982 and 1985, its manufacturer Valsella sold around 9 million V-69s to Iraq. The mine was given a nickname by Iraqi minelayers: the “Broom”. 120mm, 3.2kg. »

This picture features the Ibn Sina Hospital in Sirte. It was taken by the award-winning photojournalist André Liohn who received the 2011 Robert Capa Gold Medal Award for his work in Libya.

The violent confrontations that occurred in October 2011, in Sirte, Libya forced the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff to evacuate 49 war-wounded patients from the Ibn Sina Hospital towards Tripoli hospitals.

The Health Care in Danger project is an initiative of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement that addresses the issue of violence against patients and health-care workers. It aims at ensuring safe access to and delivery of health care in armed conflict and other emergencies.

This project will be on the agenda of the 32rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 8-10 December 2015 in Geneva.

Refugees lit by a torch in Kljuc Brdovecki, Croatia, are guided through the fog along a track next to fields approaching the Slovenian border on 26 October 2015.

UNHCR launches an appeal to fund the Winterization Plan for the Refugee Crisis in Europe, November 2015 – February 2016.

"The plan focuses on putting in place measures to support affected countries such as Croatia, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in order to avert the risk of humanitarian tragedy and loss of life during the winter months," UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said. UNHCR's new winter plan anticipates as many as 5,000 arrivals to reach Greece each day from Turkey between November 2015 and February 2016.

This year, Geneva Peace Week gathered 2800 participants representing the civil society and the diplomatic community. On this occasion, the photo exhibition “What Does Peace Look Like?” composed of works honoured by the Alfred Fried Award Photography is shown at the Palais des Nations until 25 November 2015.

One of the photos exhibited shows 25-year-old Neehaari, from Andhra Pradesh in India, who doused herself with kerosene, “Other women tell me that they also have lots of problems with their husbands. That this is our culture. We are women, so we have to compromise. We are worth less than men. In most villages people think like that, my parents too. But not me. Men and women are equal.”

The photographer Ann-Christine Woehrl portrayed women survivors of acid and arson attacks in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Uganda. 48 women. 48 unimaginable stories combined in the book IN/VISIBLE, Edition Lammerhuber.

Radio contact between astronaut Kjell Lindgren from International Space Station and students from the Institut Florimont in Geneva. This event took place during the ITU World Radio Conference (WRC-15) in Geneva. Almost 3000 people from 160 countries meet until 27 November 2015 to discuss the future of global communication. 

A patient, victim of sexual violence photographed in Shabunda hospital in South-Kivu in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

ICRC-CERAH joint event focussing on conflict-related sexual violence "Sexual violence in armed conflict: Underlying causes and prevention strategies” will take place this coming Thursday 12 November at the Humanitarium and is open to the public. During this occasion, the latest publication of the International Review of the Red Cross related to this issue, will be featured.

Award-winning photographer Lisa Kristine captured this haunting image of a young man caught in the vicious cycle of modern-day slavery. For as long as he can recall, he has been forced to work on the Lake Volta, Ghana. Terrified of his master he will not run away. Cruelty is all he knows.

Latest estimates from the International Labour Organization - the UN agency for the World of Work - show there are 21 million people in forced labour, generating US$ 150 billion in illegal profits across all continents. The three-year 50 for Freedom campaign launched on 20 October 2015, calls on governments to help end modern slavery.

On the occasion of the Nansen Initiative Global Consultation, Lucy + Jorge Orta's work Antarctic Village – No Borders was on exhibition at the Geneva Sicli Pavillon on 11 October 2015. The installation explores issues of territory and identity.

During the Global Consultation, more than 100 governments from around the world came to Geneva to endorse the "Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change". 

WTO Public Forum 2015 opening session film "Trade at Work: a reverse engineering exercise".
What does it take to make a shoe in today’s connected global economy? People.
Presented on 30 september 2015.

CERN, Researchers'Night. Olivier Gaumer, of Physiscope (UNIGE) shows the properties of color to more than 500 teenagers at one of the shows "La science au cinéma", 25 September 2015.

The cartoonist Gabriele Schlipf draws her vision of the Geneva Peace Talks, held 18-19th September 2015.

Green Cross international: One of the photos exhibited on the theme "The Future We Want", along Quai Wilson, to be viewed until 30th September.

UNECE Expert Forum for producers and users of climate change-related statistics, Palais des Nations, 2-3 September 2015

Fête de la communication, Geneva Press Club (CSP), 28 August 2015

World Humanitarian Day, Sergio Vieira de Mello Award ceremony for humanitarian workers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, Palais des Nations, 19 August 2015

UNITAR's Women in leadership workshop for WMO delegates, WMO Building, 6 June 2015

CERN @Montreux Jazz Festival: The physics of music and the music of physics 2015, 9 July 2015

8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2015), Opening Session, Vancouver - Canada, 19 July 2015

Return to Geneva of the Fondation pour Genève bus roadshow «Geneva reaches out to the Swiss», 27 June 2015

ITC's Open Day for Francophonie, International Trade Centre (ITC), 29 June 2015

University of Geneva Internet L@w Summer School - The Geneva Internet Governance Landscape session with the Geneva Internet Platform, WMO Building, 26 June 2015

Inauguration of European and Global Support Centres & Open House, World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Geneva, 12 June 2015

Geneva Consultations on Yemen, Palais des Nations, 14 June 2015

UNECE World Environment Day 2015, Opening of cartoon exibition (until 19 June), Palais des Nations, 5 June 2015

Special edition of the GCSP's annual security policy conference to celebrate GCSP's 20th anniversary, Maison de la Paix, 29 May 2015

Inauguration by the CERN & HUG of an emergency response centre on the CERN site, 20 May 2015

Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a new Act of the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, WIPO's headquarters, 11 May 2015

Geneva Consultations on Syria, Palais des Nations, 7 May 2015

Conference on "Ukraine’s Current Security, Humanitarian Demining and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) Challenges", organized by GICHD, DCAF and OSCE, Maison de la Paix, 28-29 April 2015

MIKTA (Mexico-Indonesia-Korea-Turkey-Australia) diplomacy - current developments and vision for the future, Annual event hosted by the DiploFoundation and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea, 24 April 2015

Inauguration of the Fondation pour Genève bus roadshow "Geneva reaches out to the Swiss", Place du Rhône - Geneva, 18 April 2015

Human Rights Council - Special Session on Boko Haram, Palais des Nations, 1 April 2015

40th anniversary of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), Palais des Nations, 30 March 2015 

Regional Consultation on Financing for Development, Palais des Nations, 23 March 2015

Forest Exhibition at the Salle des Pas Perdus, Palais des Nations, on the occasion of the International Day of Forests, 20 March 2015

Wild and precious : conservation in the 21st century, Symposium organized by the CITES Secretariat on the occasion of World Wildlife Day, Geneva Airport - Press Room, 3 March 2015

High Level Segment of the 2015 Conference on Disarmament, Palais des Nations. Monday 2 March 2015

18th International Meeting of Mine Action National Programme Directors and UN Advisors, WMO Building, 17 February 2015

CITES Ministerial dialogue and senior officials meeting for key States concerned with the illegal trade in rhinoceros horn 

Geneva Climate Change Conference, Palais des Nations, 8 February 2015

136th session of WHO Executive Board, 30 January 2015

World Congress on Juvenile Justice, International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG), 27 January 2015

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Swiss Federal Parliament's National Council visits the Palais des Nations, 19 January 2015 

As part of a mass distribution campaign supported by the Global Fund, workers offload shipping containers full of white bales of mosquito nets, moving the contents onto trucks for delivery to families to prevent malaria, Yamoussoukro – Ivory Coast, 6 December 2014 

Front view of the WIPO Conference Hall, 6 January 2015

Official Launch of the Global Humanitarian Appeal 2015, Palais des Nations, 8 December 2014 

Community health workers Universe Enebong (left) and Angelica Ujaga travel along the Atlantic estuary in Cross River State, in Nigeria to reach remote villages that have no access to roads. They will deliver Gavi-supported life-saving vaccines to the communities, December 2013

TEDxPlaceDesNations, Palais des Nations - Assembly Hall, 11 December 2014

Global Think Tank Summit 2014: Think Tanks, Public Policy and Governance: National, Regional and Global Perspectives, Palais des Nations, 4 December 2014

‘Take care of time’ - UNECE Photo exhibition: Ageing in Georgia seen through the eyes of its older citizens

50th Anniversary of the Foundation for Buildings for International Organizations (FIPOI), Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, 20 November 2014

Inauguration of Amnesty International's new office in Geneva, 10 November 2014

International Geneva on display at Château de Prangins with Mark Henley, Swiss Press Photographer 2014 for his work on the Iran Talks

UN Day Staff Photo, Palais des Nations, 24 October 2014

CERN-UN Special Event: Celebration of Sixty Years of Science for Peace and Development, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 October 2014

Didier Drogba, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador at the Grand Opening of World Investment Forum 2014, Palais des Nations, 13 October 2014

First IPU Global Conference of Young  Parliamentarians, International Conference Centre of Geneva (CICG), 11 October 2014

2014 Nansen Refugee Award Ceremony, Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, 29 September 2014

Senegalese musician Ismaël Lô performing at the inauguration of WIPO's New Conference Hall, September 22, 2014

Geneva Peace Talks 2014, Palais des Nations, 19 September 2014

Fondation pour Genève Award Ceremony 2014 in honor of Mr Didier Burkhalter, President of the Swiss Confederation, Palais des Nations, 8 September 2014

New UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein in his office in Palais Wilson, the headquarters of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 5 September 2014

Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the first Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, Geneva Town Hall, 26 August 2014

Crossing of Lake Leman by IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre and her colleagues on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the IUCN Red List, 20 August 2014

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Ebola Treatment Centre - Nurses are receiving meals they will give to the patients, Kailahun, Sierra Leone, 11 July 2014

Demobilization of 149 child soldiers in the Kurdish areas of Syria after several months of negotiations with the NGO Geneva Call, Ramalan, Syria, 5 July 2014

37th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG), 14 July 2014

‘The Physics of Music and the Music of Physics’, performance insipred by CERN at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 12 July 2014

Regional Review Conference on the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG), 8 July 2014

Opening session of the Geneva Health Forum, 14 April 2014

Summer reception of the Diplomatic Club in the residence of the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN , Ambassador Alexandre Fasel, 28 juin 2013

Substantive session of ECOSOC, Opening of the High-level Segment, Palais des Nations, 1 July 2013

Fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade: “Connecting to value chains”, Session 1, 8 July 2013

History as News, Exhibition at UNOG, February 2013