Six weeks into the job, the former Iraqi president turned UN refugee chief has toured the Middle East and east Africa, signalling his strategic priorities, his calibrated style and the funding sources he hopes to unlock.

The Nigerian head of the World Trade Organization said long overdue reform of the 30-year old body will be “front and centre” at next month’s ministerial conference in Cameroon, as it grapples with an existential crisis. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/ME

It is time that the World Health Organization helps turn the tide to prevent gun violence and its health impacts, write Bettina Borisch & Pascal Rudin of the Global Coalition for WHO Action on Gun Violence. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/RJ

Washington’s top UN diplomat was in Geneva on Wednesday, where he visited several UN agencies as well as the ICRC. He regretted that UN80 reforms and budget cuts had not been launched sooner. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/rv

Countries at the UN rights body protested a decision to suspend accessibility and limit interpretation services for meetings as the UN struggles with a liquidity crunch. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/nM

Ahead of the World Health Organization's big meeting in May, board members may have granted legal favors to the US and Argentina as they withdraw from the agency. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/YL

Trump era visa restrictions, anti-immigration policies and attacks on academic freedom are driving more students to universities in Europe, including the Geneva Graduate Institute, according to its director, Marie-Laure Salles. However, Europe isn’t impermeable to the climate of fear, she warns.

Procedural disputes and geopolitical rivalries overshadowed the launch of a UN body in Geneva meant to assess the science on chemical pollution. Delegates now brace for similar tensions at plastics talks on Saturday.

New Start, the last major US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty, once crafted in Geneva, expires on 5 February – with nothing lined up to replace it.

States will stare down a funding cliff and a legal limbo caused by Washington’s messy departure at the World Health Organization’s executive board meeting this week in Geneva. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/Qu

Diplomats in Geneva heard faith leaders rally round the first US pope’s call for “unarmed and disarming peace”, as Leo mulls an invitation to join Trump’s Board of Peace. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/na

The University of Geneva has set up a foundation to raise private money for research, chiefly from the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation. It insists the support won’t replace public funding – even as federal budget cuts threaten research and education.

Countries greenlighted on Friday a UN-backed investigation into Iran’s crackdown on protests that have left scores dead, despite Tehran’s objections. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/k4

As the World Economic Forum wound down one of its highest-level and arguably most raucous sessions yet, Geneva experts are welcoming straight-talking calls for a new global order. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/6e

Faster forecasts on cheaper hardware sound promising. A Norway-Malawi pilot, backed by the @wmo-global.bsky.social shows how AI could reshape weather prediction – and why caution still matters. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/0z

The Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session on Iran on Friday to address reports of widespread violence and scores killed during recent protests. Ali Bahreini, the Islamic republic’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, lays out Tehran’s position. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/52

Despite exiting a host of global and UN entities, the Trump administration is sharpening its focus elsewhere, including in Geneva’s quiet but powerful rules and standards machinery.

From scarcity-driven capitalism to techno-feudalism, today’s economic model has moved far away from the veneer of sustainability that the World Economic Forum, gathering this week in Davos, wrapped itself in in recent years.

After US pressure on Venezuela culminated in this month’s military operation, local aid groups say acute humanitarian and economic crises are yet to figure among global priorities.

Fifty years after young diplomats launched the Geneva Diplomatic Club as an informal networking space where formalities can be put aside, president Raymond Loretan says it still offers a vital forum for dialogue and ideas on rebooting international Geneva. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/Q1

European states are moving to haul Tehran before the UN rights council amid reports of scores killed in Iran’s protest crackdown and lingering fears of military escalation.

In 2022, a major digitisation effort reached completion: the entire archive of the League of Nations was placed online. Long mainly consulted by western scholars, the collection is now open to historians worldwide — a shift that could gradually reshape how the institution is studied and understood.

Indonesia’s top Geneva diplomat has been tapped to lead the UN Human Rights Council as the body braces for one of its toughest years yet. He will have to navigate political divisions and contend with constrained resources, with his own country’s human rights record also under a brighter spotlight.

María Alejandra Aristeguieta, a Venezuelan opposition figure, says she was stunned by Trump’s decision to sideline the opposition after helping prepare Maduro’s capture. Working with Maduro’s successors, she warns, risks repeating an old and dangerous playbook. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/q8

The US abduction of Venezuela’s head of state is the latest blow to international law. A system already bruised by years of selective disregard is now struggling to react.

US president Donald Trump has decided to pull out of several international entities critical for protecting the environment and the climate, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a cornerstone of the global fight against temperature rise. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/0b

Funding shocks, political U-turns and weakened institutions have laid bare the flaws in a global health architecture long overdue for reform – and the need for courageous leadership to stop it from unravelling, writes global health journalist Priti Patnaik. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/xq

An overnight announcement by president Donald Trump to exit 66 international organisations – including Unctad and the IPCC in Geneva – may signal the US administration’s further diversion from multilateralism, but may be more symbolic than a funding catastrophe.

As satellite launches surge toward 1.7 million by 2030, astronomers and space companies are turning to multilateralism to mitigate satellite brightness and radio interference and keep astronomy alive. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/Bl

As Barham Salih prepares to take over as UN refugee chief in January 2026, Patrick Wall, a consultant who has worked closely with UNHCR staff through the funding crisis, sets out what an exhausted workforce – and a strained humanitarian sector – urgently need from their next leader.

As governments meet in Geneva to review progress on the Global Compact on Refugees, two refugee leaders from Uganda and Turkey warn that host countries and local actors are shouldering most of the burden – at the risk of breaking.

Climate change and population growth have added urgency to a deadly legacy that has haunted the Pacific for 80 years. The @thegichd.bsky.social, which brought experts from several Pacific Island nations to the city last month, hopes to turn the tide. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/sM

As a leading voice for climate and biodiversity, @wwf.panda.org will mark its 65th anniversary next year. Back in Gland from Belém, its head, Kirsten Schuijt, takes stock of lagging efforts to tackle global warming – and explains why she still remains optimistic. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/Wy

Nearly a year after the United States announced it would leave the World Health Organization and donor support became scarce, the UN agency’s head said it had “no choice” but to slash jobs.

As the world celebrates Human Rights Day, the system meant to protect people’s rights worldwide is reeling from a funding crisis resulting in 300 job cuts, shrinking operations and leaving defenders on the ground exposed.

As plastics treaty negotiations hover in limbo, will UNEA in Nairobi provide some political direction and a blessing for a new leader or turn into another stalling game? ✍️@michellelangrand.bsky.social @toxicsfree.bsky.social @ciel.org ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/IZ

Reports of executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces are stacking up, according to the United Nations. While they are often difficult to prove, Ukrainian authorities investigating the deaths accuse Moscow of “criminal behaviour”. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/d7

Two months in since arriving in Geneva to lead the European Union’s diplomacy at the United Nations, German diplomat Deike Potzel stresses how closely EU values align with international Geneva’s brand of multilateralism, while arguing that the UN must be reformed so it can perform better.

Ukraine's decision to park its obligations under an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines as it battles Russia's invasion has triggered pushback from its European allies and NGOs, which warn that it deals a blow to international law.

Amid soaring military spending and intensifying conflicts, Nathalie Chuard, the head of @dcafgeneva.bsky.social, warns that countries, from Europe to the Middle East, cannot militarise their way to stability and must invest in human security. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/iZ

Washington’s alignment with Moscow in a low-profile UN vote underscores its policy shift as US officials move to broker a deal to end the war in Ukraine on Russia's terms. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/57

Amid a surge in conflicts, rising IHL violations and dwindling resources, @icrc.org president Mirjana Spoljaric lays out the challenges the organisation faces, as it cuts a further 2,900 jobs on top of the 4,500 lost in 2023. ✍️Stéphane Bussard for @letemps.ch ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/Vs

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza may have eased, but Palestinians continue to die of hunger, dehydration, disease, cold and despair. Laureline Lasserre, who travelled across the enclave for @msf.fr, describes an ever‑tightening hellscape.

By hosting talks between Ukrainian, US and European officials on a peace plan for Ukraine, partly sketched by the Russian Kirill Dmitriev, Switzerland treads a fine line between pushing for peace and defending the international legal order it so often champions. ➡️ https://l.genevasolutions.news/oL

Near-rebellion and last-minute manoeuvres marked a stormy meeting of the Aarhus Convention, putting to the test a treaty designed to protect environmental defenders.

Geneva, the longtime epicentre of humanitarian aid, peacemaking and diplomacy, is feeling the tremors of yet another wave of relocations and job cuts, from the UN children’s agency to the World Health Organization to Gavi.

The UN’s first Amazonian climate conference has put a spotlight on primary rainforests and the need to support their preservation. But Indigenous groups have their own proposals.

Three years after its adoption in Dublin, as countries meet in the Costa Rican capital of San José, humanitarians and human rights campaigners urge states to act on an international commitment to protect civilians from devastating attacks in built-up areas.

Forced labour of children, targeted attacks on workers and seized unions – Russia’s abuses are well-documented and known by the @ilo.org. It must now decide whether to live up to its mission or keep looking away from Ukraine, write Vasyl Andreyev & Luca Cirigliano, ILO Governing Body union members.

New forms of diplomacy are emerging to respond to a world where the rules-based system of the last 80 years, enshrined in the UN charter, is crumbling, says David Harland the director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.