Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva
Part of6th June 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Each of the three annual sessions of the UN’s Human Rights Council has its own character. This reflects the issues that everyone knows will dominate the session. But each member of the Council also has their own priorities, too. The June session of the Council starts on 13 June and runs to Friday 1 July. […]
10th May 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
One of the thorniest controversies in the WHO right now goes by the catchy acronym, FENSA. This stands for Framework on Engagement with Non State Actors. Beneath this bland surface lies one of the great dilemmas facing all international agencies. What is the appropriate role of business in policy making? Just to be clear, in […]
25th April 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
In recent years the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has published an annual report on human rights. The 2015 Report was released last week. This year two themes sparked particular debate amongst those who follow Britain’s approach to human rights in civil society and elsewhere. The first was the length of the report, and the […]
21st March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
The Syrian conflict is the source of the most immediate threats now facing the United Kingdom and Europe. Dealing with it has become the most important agenda in Geneva. Our citizens have travelled to the conflict and came back radicalised and ready to commit acts of terrorism. Regional rivals have been drawn into the conflict […]
8th March 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
By the end of this year the President of the United States and the Secretary General of the United Nations could both be women. Women have made more progress towards real equality during my lifetime than in the previous 20,000 years of human history. When my mother was a British diplomat, she did not think […]
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23rd February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Like all governments and international organisations, the UN sometimes gets a bad press. Recently the UN faced critical headlines following the release of an opinion by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Julian Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the UK. Now, the decision to conclude that someone who is evading Swedish justice by […]
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8th February 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
Last week’s conference in London did not solve the Syrian refugee crisis. That requires an end to the conflict. The suspension of the peace talks in Geneva last week shows we’re not even at the end of the beginning of that process, as Churchill might have said. But London did some important things. It raised […]
28th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
No other international gathering attracts such mythology. The place where the world’s economic elite co-opts its political leadership. Or the best place in the world to discuss and solve global problems. The arguments for and against Davos rage every year. But it’s as popular as ever. BIG SHORT Just before this year’s Davos gathering, Oxfam […]
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11th January 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
The Geneva institutions are facing big questions at the start of 2016. Will the humanitarian system adapt to the challenges of protracted conflicts and unsustainable mass migration? Will the World Trade Organization (WTO) rediscover its role at the heart of the global economy? Can we respond effectively to the growing threat of pandemics and the […]
14th December 2015 Geneva, Switzerland
Occasionally you come across a fact that changes how you think. One such moment for me was when I discovered how the world had managed to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. It turns out that we met it five years early, meaning that nearly 1 […]
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