Page 203 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

the Disaster Relief Coordinator and the Centre for Human Rights. Their work
aims to alleviate suffering, end hunger and malnutrition, provide people with
health care, adequate food and shelter, and eradicate all forms of inequality,
discrimination and human rights violations.

Geneva is also home to major specialized agencies. Of the 19 organizations
of the United Nations system, five are headquartered in Geneva. Some of them
were established a long time ago, in the days of the League of Nations or even
earlier, while others, younger organizations have been founded to meet the new
needs identified by the international community. Those are the International
Telecommunication Union, operating in Geneva since 1865; the International
Labour Organization, established in 1919; the World Health Organization,
founded in 1948; the World Meteorological Organization, which has existed
since 1878 but received the status of an intergovernmental organization only in
1950; and the World Intellectual Property Organization, established in 1974.

Summarizing the experience of the Geneva-based organizations of the UN
system, we can say that they perform at least three important functions. First,
they conduct extensive analytical and research work, studying the experience of
solving various social, political and economic problems in many countries of
the world. Accordingly, they are at the same time the depository of knowledge
in various fields of human activity. Second, they make recommendations to
member countries to enable them to address their problems faster, more
efficiently and at the lowest cost. Finally, they carry out a huge amount of
technical assistance work. It is no coincidence that recently Heads of State and
Government ever more often come to Geneva not just to make a perfunctory
speech at a particular conference, but also to get a detailed knowledge of the
work of the UN system organizations. Among them are the leaders of France,
Italy, Slovenia, Latvia, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Guatemala, to
name just a few.

If we compare the city of Calvin with the largest cities in the world such as
Paris, New York, Tokyo, London, Madrid or Rome, we will have to admit that
its role was and remains absolutely disproportionate to its small territory and
small population. It is and should remain a kind of bridge connecting peoples
and civilizations.

Permanent Missions

For more than half a century now, the number of permanent missions in
Geneva has been steadily increasing, owing to the ever more complex nature of

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