Page 320 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

58.

Geneva Three Dimensional Center of
Preventive and Peace Building Activities

November 1998

F or more than a century Geneva has been associated with
international cooperation. It has remained as a major pole of the
international system since it was designated as the headquarters for
the world's first international organization, the League of Nations in 1919.
Nowadays, it is the seat of the UN Office at Geneva, five UN specialized
agencies and 15 other UN organizations, it also hosts numerous non-UN
international entities. In recent years in the course of United Nations reform,
the role of Geneva in the UN system has been renewed. It is now considered as
a global rather than Eurocentric center with the considerable advantage of an
advantageous geographical location. Geneva has strengthened its traditional
and key role as a center for conference diplomacy and UN operational activities
and has at the same time acquired new functions as the repository of “know-
how” in a variety of fields. Thus, Geneva is a three-dimensional center or
triangle of UN crises-prevention and peace-building activities.

Every year UNOG services about 7,500 international conferences and
meetings - almost double the number held in New York at UN Headquarters.
They range from technical sessions to assemblies and negotiations on major
political, economic and social issues. Some 80,000 people from all over the
world attend these meetings annually and both their number and importance
are increasing. Recently the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council
held two meetings at Geneva Headquarters at the ministerial level. Further,
some important political negotiations like those on the settlement of the
conflict situation in Abkhazia, Georgia, have started and are regularly held in

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