"We must strengthen the international rules-based system, which has sustainable peace, cooperation, and problem-solving engraved in the Charter of the United Nations. With a century of history and experience to learn from and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to aim for, we must continue to push forward to provide effective responses to the world’s greatest challenges, and in doing so, make this world more inclusive and prosperous for the benefit of all."
Tatiana Valovaya
Director-General, UN Geneva
Priorities
In some of its most arduous moments, humanity comes together to develop solutions to its greatest challenges. UN Geneva connects global actors and gives them effective tools and efficient services to address these complex interconnected problems through multilateral collective action.
With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as guide, it maintains the drive to work together for a better future. UN Geneva is a central hub for collective action that impacts positively on everyone’s lives and has done so for a century already. Built in the 1930s for the League of Nations, the Palais des Nations now hosts UN Geneva and, between the two, has witnessed a hundred years of international multilateral diplomacy on many of the most vital issues and facilitated international cooperation in a diverse range of areas – from health, security and humanitarian affairs to migration, intellectual property and human rights. With this legacy of multilateralism as part of its DNA, UN Geneva collaborates closely with its International Geneva partners, evolving and adjusting to the rapidly changing world, embracing innovation in order to promote peace, rights and well-being.
Office of the Director-General
The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva is supported by the Office of the Director-General in her functions as the representative of the Secretary-General in Switzerland, as executive head of the United Nations Office at Geneva, as Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Conference.
Aside from its core function of support and advice to the Director-General, the Office also performs a number of key functions for all of UN Geneva and beyond, among them: political outreach and partnerships; legal advice; protocol and diplomatic liaison; and NGO liaison. This includes political and representational functions with Member States, regional and other intergovernmental organizations, but also the enhancement of cooperation with Geneva-based United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies. Capitalizing on the large diversity of stakeholders present in Geneva, the Office develops cooperation with civil society, the academic and research communities, and the private sector, to support UN Geneva in delivering its mandate and contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. From the provision of political, legal and protocol advice, internal and external communication, to liaison with the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, other Secretariat units at Headquarters and other duty stations, the Office contributes to enhancing the efforts of the United Nations to deliver as one.
Political
Legal
Civil Society
Protocol
Perception Change Project
SDG Lab
