Page 436 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International

between Bolivia and Paraguay; and Peru and Colombia. These agreements
were the result of complex diplomatic strategies and legal procedures which
established many of the means and methods now used in modern day
negotiation.

This tradition of peace-building and preventive diplomacy remains an im-
portant part of life at the Palais. Since 1946 when the newly-created United
Nations took over, the Palais has been the site of many important conferences
and negotiations. Over more recent decades these have included the Geneva
Peace Conference on the Middle East in the 1970s; negotiations to resolve the
conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq and the situation relating
to Afghanistan in the 1980s; and the International Conference on Former Yu-
goslavia, as well as talks on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia in the 1990s.
Talks on Cyprus have also taken place in the Palais. The latest round was held
here in July 2000. During the Cold War era the Palais was the location for the
signing of a number of treaties establishing common norms in arms negotia-
tions; trade and development; and science and technology. The Conference on
Disarmament worked in the Palais throughout the Cold War era but it was only
once it ended in the 1990s that it managed to finalize the agreements which led
to the signing of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and
the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Nowadays the Palais is more than a meeting point for international
delegates and peace negotiators. It is at the centre of Geneva's extraordinary
diplomatic community which constitutes a vast pool of knowledge on many
aspects of international affairs. These range from telecommunications to
refugees, from human rights to intellectual property, and from trade and
development to international disarmament negotiations. Geneva is the
headquarters of several programmes, funds and offices of the UN system
including, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR);
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); World Health Organization
(WHO) UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD);
International Labour Organization; World Intellectual Property Organization

(WIPO); International Telecommunications Union (ITU); and World
Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is also the location for other
international bodies including the World Trade Organization, and the
International Committee of the Red Cross.

But the Palais is not only known for the art of diplomacy: befitting its ar-
chitectural grandeur, it has an artistic life of its own. This tradition dates back

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