United Nations Office at Geneva and Related Topics

United Nations

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Intergovernmental organization whose purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.

1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the UN original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states

The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue

Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active secretary-general from 1953 until his death in 1961.

Kofi Annan, secretary-general from 1997 to 2006

Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters, seen in 2007

Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet general secretary, addressing the UN General Assembly in December 1988

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, demonstrates a vial with alleged Iraq chemical weapon probes to the UN Security Council on Iraq war hearings, 5 February 2003

Current secretary-general, António Guterres

The ICJ ruled that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law.

Under Sukarno, Indonesia became the first and only country to leave the United Nations.

A Nepalese soldier on a peacekeeping deployment providing security at a rice distribution site in Haiti during 2010

The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1949

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme reading the news that smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1980

In Jordan, UNHCR remains responsible for the Syrian refugees and the Zaatari refugee camp.

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the UN—diploma in the lobby of the UN Headquarters in New York City

Marking of the UN's 70th anniversary – Budapest, 2015

The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City, and has other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague (home to the International Court of Justice).

Geneva

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Second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

L'Escalade is what Genevans call the failed surprise attack of 12 December 1602 by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, to take Geneva. This imaginative image was drawn by Matthias Quad, or the workshop of Frans Hogenberg, around 1603. Invaders are pictured crossing the moat in the center left while reinforcements are entering Plainpalais at the bottom. A column of defenders is in the center, headed toward the Savoyards. Lake Léman is at center top.

Satellite view of Geneva; Cointrin Airport is centre left.

The Geneva area seen from the Salève in France. The Jura mountains are on the horizon.

Average temperature and precipitation 1961–1990

Coat of arms of Geneva as part of the pavement in front of the Reformation Wall, 2013

The Flowered Clock at the Quai du Général-Guisan (English Garden), during the 2012 Geneva Festival

Apartment buildings in the Quartier des Grottes

Geneva, with Lake Geneva in the background

Reformation Wall in Geneva; from left to right: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and John Knox

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

The World Intellectual Property Organization.

The assembly hall of the Palace of Nations.

International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR)

Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Mallet House and Museum international de la Réforme

Although they do not directly contribute to the local economy, the city of Geneva is also host to the world's largest concentration of international organisations and UN agencies, such as the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, and the International Labour Organization, as well as the European headquarters of the United Nations.

Switzerland

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Landlocked country located at the confluence of Western, Central and Southern Europe.

Founded in 44 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, Augusta Raurica (near Basel) was the first Roman settlement on the Rhine and is now among the most important archaeological sites in Switzerland.

The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colours shown are the subject territories.

The Act of Mediation was Napoleon's attempt at a compromise between the Ancien Régime and a Republic.

The first Federal Palace in Bern (1857). One of the three cantons presiding over the Tagsatzung (former legislative and executive council), Bern was chosen as the permanent seat of federal legislative and executive institutions in 1848, in part because of its closeness to the French-speaking area.

Inauguration in 1882 of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel connecting the southern canton of Ticino, the longest in the world at the time

General Ulrich Wille, appointed commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army for the duration of World War I

In 2003, by granting the Swiss People's Party a second seat in the governing cabinet, the Parliament altered the coalition that had dominated Swiss politics since 1959.

Köppen–Geiger climate classification map for Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council in 2022 with President Ignazio Cassis (bottom) standing on an abstract, reduced railway lines map and positioned at their respective political origins

The Federal Palace, seat of the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council

The Landsgemeinde is an old form of direct democracy, still in practice in two cantons.

The colour-reversed Swiss flag became the symbol of the Red Cross Movement, founded in 1863 by Henry Dunant.

A Swiss Air Force F/A-18 Hornet at Axalp Air Show

Swiss-built Mowag Eagles of the Land Forces

A proportional representation of Switzerland exports, 2019

The city of Basel (Roche Tower) is the capital of the country's pharmaceutical industry, which accounts for around 38% of Swiss exports worldwide.

The Greater Zürich area, home to 1.5 million inhabitants and 150,000 companies, is one of the most important economic centres in the world.

The University of Basel is Switzerland's oldest university (1460).

Some Swiss scientists who played a key role in their discipline (clockwise):
Leonhard Euler (mathematics)
Louis Agassiz (glaciology)
Auguste Piccard (aeronautics)
Albert Einstein (physics)

The LHC tunnel. CERN is the world's largest laboratory and also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.

Members of the European Free Trade Association (green) participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area.

Switzerland has the tallest dams in Europe, among which the Mauvoisin Dam, in the Alps. Hydroelectricity is the most important domestic source of energy in the country.

Entrance of the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the third-longest railway tunnel in the world, under the old Lötschberg railway line. It was the first completed tunnel of the greater project NRLA.

Population density in Switzerland (2019)

Percentage of foreigners in Switzerland (2019)

Urbanisation in the Rhone Valley (outskirts of Sion)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was not only a writer but also an influential philosopher of the eighteenth century.

Roger Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, making him among the most successful men's tennis players ever.

Fondue is melted cheese, into which bread is dipped

National languages in Switzerland (2016):
German (62.8%)
French (22.9%)
Italian (8.2%)
Romansh (0.5%)

These three cities are home to several offices of international organisations such as the WTO, the WHO, the ILO, the headquarters of FIFA, the UN's second-largest office, as well as the main office of the Bank for International Settlements.

Palace of Nations

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A conference room in the Palace of Nations

Ariana Park with Lake Geneva in the background.

The Celestial Sphere presented to the United Nations by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation

United Nations Member States' flags raised at the Palace of Nations

The Assembly Hall is used for large or major meetings such as the World Health Assembly

The Conference on Disarmament in the Council Chamber

The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room, used by the United Nations Human Rights Council

The Palace of Nations (Palais des Nations, ) is the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, located in Geneva, Switzerland.

League of Nations

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The first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.

Anachronous world map showing member states of the League during its 26-year history.

The 1864 Geneva Convention, one of the earliest formulations of international law

The League to Enforce Peace published this full-page promotion in The New York Times on Christmas Day 1918. It resolved that the League "should ensure peace by eliminating causes of dissension, by deciding controversies by peaceable means, and by uniting the potential force of all the members as a standing menace against any nation that seeks to upset the peace of the world".

On his December 1918 trip to Europe, Woodrow Wilson gave speeches that "reaffirmed that the making of peace and the creation of a League of Nations must be accomplished as one single objective".

In 1924, the headquarters of the League was named "Palais Wilson", after Woodrow Wilson, who was credited as the "Founder of the League of Nations"

Palace of Nations, Geneva, the League's headquarters from 1936 until its dissolution in 1946

Child labour in a coal mine, United States, c. 1912

A map of the world in 1920–45, which shows the League of Nations members during its history

Chinese delegate addresses the League of Nations concerning the Manchurian Crisis in 1932.

Emperor Haile Selassie I going into exile in Bath, England via Jerusalem

The Gap in the Bridge; the sign reads "This League of Nations Bridge was designed by the President of the U.S.A."
Cartoon from Punch magazine, 10 December 1920, satirising the gap left by the US not joining the League.

World map showing member states of the League of Nations (in green and red) on 18 April 1946, when the League of Nations ceased to exist.

Long live the United Nations."The Assembly passed a resolution that "With effect from the day following the close of the present session of the Assembly [i.e., April 19], the League of Nations shall cease to exist except for the sole purpose of the liquidation of its affairs as provided in the present resolution." A Board of Liquidation consisting of nine persons from different countries spent the next 15 months overseeing the transfer of the League's assets and functions to the United Nations or specialised bodies, finally dissolving itself on 31 July 1947. The archive of the League of Nations was transferred to the United Nations Office at Geneva and is now an entry in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

United Nations Human Rights Council

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United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world.

The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room is the meeting room of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

Protest at UN against China's re-election in the Human Rights Council

Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes in Yemen, June 2015. Saudi Arabia is operating without a UN mandate.

The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.

UNESCO

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Specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.

UNESCO Institute for Water Education in Delft

The Garden of Peace at UNESCO headquarters

Carondelet Palace, Presidential Palace – with changing of the guards. The Historic Center of Quito, Ecuador, is one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centres in the Americas. This centre was, together with the historic centre of Kraków in Poland, the first to be declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO on 18 September 1978.

Geneva – Liaison Office to the United Nations in Geneva

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

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Autonomous research institute within the United Nations that undertakes multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on the social dimensions of contemporary development issues".

UNRISD is based at the United Nations Office at Geneva.

UNRISD's location at the United Nations Office at Geneva gives researchers access to channels of policy influence through active participation in events, meetings, conferences and working groups.

Conference on Disarmament

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Multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.