I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, one of the world’s most respected diplomats, an extraordinary statesman, and a visionary champion for multilateralism. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was a strong believer in dialogue and deeply committed defender…

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian…

States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) have concluded the 2018 Meetings of Experts held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 7 to 16 August 2018. This was the first set of such meetings in the new 2018-2020 intersessional process, that was agreed by the BWC Meeting of…

Special Envoy de Mistura continues his consultations on the establishment of a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned and UN-facilitated constitutional committee, within the framework of the Geneva process and in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015). In this context, the Special Envoy met with…

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. Internally…

Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, the new Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Michael Møller, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Baghaei Hamaneh had been serving as the…

Adopts Concluding Observations and Recommendations on Reports of Mauritania, Russian Federation, Seychelles, and Chile The Committee against Torture this morning concluded its sixty-fourth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Mauritania,…

Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the Radio and Television Section of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of…

GENEVA (10 August 2018) - The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee today concluded its twenty-first session, which was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 6 to 10 August 2018 At the opening of the session, Eduardo Eguiguren, Vice-President of the Human Rights Council, addressed the…

JE: I think it was very clear today at the humanitarian task force that we are entering a new chapter in this very long, very bloody, very cruel, very bitter war in Syria. Hopefully we are seeing the beginning of the end to the big war. There are signs that we may now have access to people we were…