Page 32 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International

who come in search of more information about it. Thus, each year some
150,000 visitors go to the Palais des Nations in order to visit one of the
architectural wonders of the City of Geneva and, with the help of guide services
provided in several dozen languages, to obtain information about the activities
of the United Nations.

If the City of Calvin is compared with the major metropolises of the world,
Paris, New York, Tokyo, London, Madrid or Rome, it has to be acknowledged
that its role has been and continues to be out of proportion to its limited size
and its small population. It is a bridge, and so it must remain, between peoples
and civilizations.

But Geneva is also the seat of major specialized agencies. Out of 19 organi-
zations in the United Nations system, six have their headquarters in Geneva,
some long established and dating back to the League of Nations period and
even before, and others more recent, established to meet new needs expressed
by the international community. Not wishing to overburden you with acro-
nyms, I shall name: the International Telecommunication Union, in Geneva
since 1865; the International Labour Organization, established in 1919; the
World Health Organization, founded in 1948; the World Meteorological Or-
ganization, in existence since 1878, but intergovernmental only since 1950; the
World Intellectual Property Organization, established in 1974; and GATT,
which was founded in 1948.

When the United Nations was founded, and the European Office of the
United Nations was established in Geneva, all the States Members of
international organizations began opening diplomatic missions. From 51
founding members of the United Nations to the 180 current members, all are
represented in New York and, at present, 146 in Geneva.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The picture I have just painted for you of international Geneva may strike
you as optimistic. However, a total of nearly 30,000 persons active in the
international sphere live in Geneva, taking together the staff of all the
intergovernmental organizations, those who work in diplomatic missions and
the representatives of non-governmental organizations. If we also take their
families into account, we arrive at the even more impressive figure of 70,000
people connected with international organizations in the broad sense. This is
the equivalent of a provincial town, in Switzerland or in France. The number of
delegates attending meetings is estimated to be 120,000 yearly.

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