Geneva Solutions

After two decades of work, a treaty could see the light of day next year, sketching out the rules for how countries help each other when disaster strikes. But they still have to overcome old divides over its implications for sovereignty and human rights. Last week, mud and floodwater tore down the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river corridor in Nepal, flattening villages, roads and bridges in their path. More than 4,200 people are still unaccounted for while more than 1,200 have been confirmed dead.

With no specific vaccine against the strain, chains of Ebola transmission are multiplying in a region devastated by three decades of conflict and little access to primary care.

As the deadline closed for ILO leadership nominees, a former Peruvian foreign minister joined Spain’s labour minister and the incumbent director general in a race to head the financially embattled UN agency. Experts wonder what the new candidate may bring to the contest.

States will meet in Geneva this week to discuss new rules to rein in the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons, amid mounting concerns that humans could soon become the target of “killer robots”. It could easily be overlooked as a routine UN meeting, but a little-known gathering of experts in Geneva this week is expected to capture the attention of governments, civil society, and experts in the military domain and international humanitarian law.

A 48-page comic book, titled Critical Code, aims to educate students about the importance of multilateral cooperation. It has been distributed in Geneva’s secondary schools and across 15 other Swiss cantons. Since 2023, international Geneva has faced challenging years, marked by thousands of job cuts across UN agencies, the Palais des Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and scores of NGOs, as well as relocations of key operations.

The contest to find the next UN secretary general is well underway, with no clear favourite emerging yet. The impasse has laid bare rifts within the UN Security Council, stoked concerns of closed-door horse-trading and raised the prospect of more mystery candidates entering the fray in the months ahead. The UN Security Council continues to mull who will be the next UN secretary general. A second straw poll last Friday revealed just how close and unusual the competition has turned out to be.

A month before a vote on tightening Swiss neutrality, diplomats, humanitarians and academics are joining the campaign. Whether for or against the proposal, all agree that the outcome on 27 September will be pivotal. Bern — Initially, a popular vote on redefining Swiss neutrality appeared unlikely to spark much controversy, especially after a tense but unsuccessful referendum on capping the Swiss population to 10 million.

​Après les coupes: que deviennent les correspondants de la Genève internationale? ​Avec son retour à la Maison-Blanche en 2025, Donald Trump a sonné la fin de l'aide publique au développement. ​Une mauvaise nouvelle pour la Genève internationale et ses quelque 37 000 employés. ​Aujourd’hui, l'ONU traverse un plan d'austérité historique, les agences sont délocalisées et des centaines d'emplois supprimés. ​Que vont devenir les correspondants de la ville?

On World Humanitarian Day, a public artwork next to Geneva University Hospitals exposes the fragility of protections afforded to aid and healthcare workers in war zones. In front of Geneva’s central hospital, as ambulance sirens blared in the background, a huge artwork was unveiled Wednesday calling out the increasing attacks on aid and healthcare workers in conflict zones, as the number of casualties in 2026 continues to rise.

After steep aid cuts in 2025, the US has resumed funding to the UN and other organisations responding to mounting humanitarian crises. But conditions attached reveal a selective approach, and there is concern that other donors are not filling the gaps. A year ago, as the United Nations scrambled to restructure after massive donor cuts, its aid chief, Tom Fletcher, was confident of the strides his sector had made toward adapting to the new funding realities.