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international

wherever you live, you should be able to get to “As a torchbearer for women
anything that you need within 15 minutes.
around the world, i cannot express
Don’t forget that when we speak about all this how proud i was to witness not
now, it’s not just about the West, not just about
the North, Europe, the United States, Canada. If one, not two, but five remarkable
you start looking at what is happening in Africa,
in Asia, and in Latin America, you may be women elected to lead un agencies
surprised at the advance of some of the solutions in Geneva during my tenure.”
at the grassroots level.

As I said before, many more people are sitting
around the decision-making tables than and integration than before. International
before, and that translates into di erent kinds Geneva remains a crucial operational hub where
of structures, di erent kinds of diplomacy, for diverse organizations collaborate. Increased
example. public outreach is necessary to remind people
of Geneva’s signi cance and its impact on global
We need organization whose components work a airs.
together and become one in humanitarian a airs,
in development a airs, in economic a airs, much ere is nowhere else on the planet that has
more horizontal in structures. Perhaps one way such a collection and integration and richness
to explain this is to say that peace is much, much of organizations that increasingly work
more than the absence of war. together. And not just United Nations, but other
international organizations, NGOs, businesses,
Could you elaborate? academic institutions. But Geneva is not only a
You can’t make peace in any society if you don’t hub. It’s also the city of peace. It’s where you can
have health, education, access to safe food and come to talk without other agendas cutting across
water, if you don’t ensure that women are part yours. e infrastructure is still excellenteing ,
of the decision-making and the implementing it is kept up and improved by both the federal
process etc. If look at the sustainable development government and the Geneva government. So no,
goals, think of them as a roadmap for peace. I do not at all see it as stagnant. I still say there’s
If we manage to implement all of them in an not a single person on this planet, all 8 billion of
integrated way, which we are very far from being us, that is not touched every day by something
able to right now, then we will have peace in our that was generated from Geneva.
societies.
And Geneva, quite apart from anything else in
Some people don’t want peace. terms of operational impacts on people, gives
Correct. But the point here is to make sure that a very clear and strong element to the identity
the majority do. And then to have a structure, a of Switzerland. Switzerland’s ability to punch
governance structure, that ensures that the voice above its weight in the world, so to speak,
of that majority is heard. It’s called democracy. diplomatically and politically is related to this
Our democratic structures are anaemic right city. If you travel around the world and ask
now in most places and need strengthening. people what the capital of Switzerland is, they
usually say, “Geneva”. People may not talk about
We in the West and the North have to accept that Switzerland, but they know Geneva.
democracy can be one thing in one region and
something else in another, but that underneath You see, I’m optimistic about International
there must be universal values that we agree to Geneva. e role it plays and the need for it are
collectively. perhaps even greater today than just a few years
ago, particularly in this very fragmented world
Regarding International Geneva, is there a we’re in. We can imagine it as one of the anchors
Fete des sciences of this new multilateralism that we’re trying to
perception that it is currently stagnant?
It may appear calm on the surface, but build globally, even as the heart of it.
underneath lies a greater degree of collaboration

Library in Geneva
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