Page 391 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

Your visit to the UN Office in Geneva today, will provide a unique
opportunity to view the international community not only from the outside,
but from the inside as well.

For 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 organiza-
tion, the League of Nations in 1919. Nowadays, it is the seat of the UN Office
at Geneva (UNOG), five UN specialized agencies and 15 other UN organiza-
tions, it also hosts numerous other non-UN entities. There are 190 Permanent
Missions and representations in Geneva and 169 non-governmental organiza-
tions. The total annual budget of all the international organizations based in
Geneva is 8 billion CHF while expenditures made by the same group amount-
ed to 2.974 billion CHF last year alone.

In recent years in the course of United Nations reform, the role of Geneva
in the UN system has been renewed and reinvigorated. It has established itself
as a global rather than a Eurocentric hub with the considerable benefit of an
advantageous geographical location. As a result of the reform started in 1993,
and the permanent attention of the UN Secretary-General, Mr, Kofi Annan,
Geneva has strengthened its traditional, 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 has now become a three-dimensional center or triangle of international
cooperation.

Every year UNOG services about 8000 plus international meetings - al-
most double the number held in New York at UN Headquarters. They range
from technical sessions to assemblies and negotiations on major political, eco-
nomic and social issues. Some 80,000 delegates and experts from all over the
world attend these meetings annually and both their number and importance
are increasing. The Permanent Members of the UN Security Council have also
held meetings at the Ministerial level at Geneva Headquarters in recent years.
Further, important political negotiations like those which took place on the
settlement of the conflict in Abkhazia (Georgia) and most recently, the Cyprus
proximity talks, are frequently held in Geneva.

Technological innovations have also added a new flavor to conference
services - the geographic scope of which is no longer limited to Geneva-based
meetings. Remote translation and text-processing for conferences held outside

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