1.
Palace of Nations
–
The Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, was built between 1929 and 1938 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. In 2012 alone, the Palace of Nations hosted more than 10,000 intergovernmental meetings, a jury of architects was selected to choose a final design from among three-hundred and thirty-seven entries but was unable to decide on a winner. Donations from League members were used in the interior, the Palace constituted at the time of completion, volume wise, the second-largest building complex in Europe after Versailles. After its transfer to the United Nations, two extensions were added to the building, which increased the size of the usable area of the building. Between 1950-1952, three floors were added to the K building, and the D building was constructed to house temporarily the World Health Organization, the E building was added between 1968-1973 as a conference facility, with bringing the total of conference rooms to 34. The park also contains a 1668 chalet, a medal showing the Palace of Nations with the Jura Mountains in the background was struck in silvered bronze. The building overlooks Lake Geneva and has a view of the French Alps. List of United Nations organizations by location United Nations System Joëlle Kuntz, Geneva, a History, éditions Zoé,2011,96 pages. Jean-Claude Pallas, Histoire et architecture du Palais des Nations, Nations Unies,2001,431 pages United Nations Office at Geneva Palais des Nations
2.
Geneva
–
Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
3.
Switzerland
–
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
4.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
World Health Organization
–
The World Health Organization is a specialised agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, the WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations, the constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international dhygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization, since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, an international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey. The head of WHO is Margaret Chan, the 2014/2015 proposed budget of the WHO is about US$4 billion. About US$930 million are to be provided by member states with a further US$3 billion to be from voluntary contributions, after failing to get a resolution passed on the subject, Alger Hiss, the Secretary General of the conference, recommended using a declaration to establish such an organisation. Dr. Sze and other delegates lobbied and a declaration passed calling for a conference on health. The use of the world, rather than international, emphasised the truly global nature of what the organisation was seeking to achieve. The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 51 countries of the United Nations and it thus became the first specialised agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed. Its constitution formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget of US$5 million for the 1949 year. Andrija Stampar was the Assemblys first president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed Director-General of WHO and its first priorities were to control the spread of malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve maternal and child health, nutrition and environmental hygiene. Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation of statistics on the spread. The logo of the World Health Organization features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing, in 1947 the WHO established an epidemiological information service via telex, and by 1950 a mass tuberculosis inoculation drive using the BCG vaccine was under way. In 1955, the eradication programme was launched, although it was later altered in objective. 1965 saw the first report on diabetes mellitus and the creation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In 1958, Viktor Zhdanov, Deputy Minister of Health for the USSR, called on the World Health Assembly to undertake an initiative to eradicate smallpox. At this point,2 million people were dying from smallpox every year, in 1966, WHO moved into its headquarters building
6.
World Intellectual Property Organization
–
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of property throughout the world. WIPO currently has 189 member states, administers 26 international treaties, the current Director-General of WIPO is Francis Gurry, who took office on October 1,2008. 186 of the UN Members as well as the Cook Islands, Holy See, non-members are the states of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, South Sudan and East Timor. WIPO was formally created by the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, under Article 3 of this Convention, WIPO seeks to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. WIPO became an agency of the UN in 1974. Unlike other branches of the United Nations, WIPO has significant financial resources independent of the contributions from its Member States and this proposal was well supported by developing countries. A number of civil society bodies have been working on a draft Access to Knowledge treaty which they would like to see introduced. In December 2011, WIPO published its first World Intellectual Property Report on the Changing Face of Innovation, WIPO is also a co-publisher of the Global Innovation Index. WIPO has established WIPOnet, an information network. The project seeks to link over 300 intellectual property offices in all WIPO Member States, in addition to providing a means of secure communication among all connected parties, WIPOnet is the foundation for WIPOs intellectual property services. The Economics and Statistics Division is responsible for collecting statistics on IP activity worldwide, in addition, the Division carries out economic analysis on how IP and innovation policy choices affect economic performance
7.
United Nations
–
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
8.
Headquarters of the United Nations
–
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The complex has served as the headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River and its borders are First Avenue on the west, East 42nd Street to the south, East 48th Street on the north and the East River to the east. The term Turtle Bay is occasionally used as a metonym for the UN headquarters or for the United Nations as a whole, the United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters, or headquarters districts. These were opened in Geneva in 1946, Vienna in 1980 and they are technically extraterritorial through a treaty agreement with the U. S. government. However, in exchange for police, fire protection and other services, the United Nations agrees to acknowledge most local, state. The United Nations Headquarters complex was constructed in stages with the complex completed between 1948 and 1952. The US$8.5 million purchase was funded by his father, John D. Rockefeller. The Rockefeller family owned the Tudor City Apartments across First Avenue from the site, Wallace Harrison, the personal architectural adviser for the Rockefeller family and brother-in-law to a Rockefeller daughter, served as the Director of Planning for the United Nations Headquarters. His firm, Harrison and Abramovitz, oversaw the execution of the design, the property was originally a slaughterhouse before the donation took place, bordered on one side by the Rockefeller owned Tudor City Apartments. While the United Nations had dreamed of constructing an independent city for its new world capital, the diminutive site on the East River necessitated a Rockefeller Center-type vertical complex, thus, it was a given that the Secretariat would be housed in a tall office tower. During daily meetings from February to June 1947, the team produced at least 45 designs and variations. Rather than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the American architect Wallace K. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. Niemeyer met with Corbusier at the latters request shortly after the arrived in New York City. Corbusier had already been lobbying hard to promote his own scheme 23, instead, he asked the younger architect to assist him with his project. Niemeyer began to absent himself from the meetings, only after Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz repeatedly pressed him to participate did Niemeyer agree to submit his own project. This would not split the site, but on the contrary, after much discussion, Harrison, who coordinated the meetings, determined that a design based on Niemeyers project 32 and Le Corbusiers project 23 would be developed for the final project. The complex as built, however, repositioned Niemeyers General Assembly building to the north of this tripartite composition and this plan included a public plaza as well
9.
League of Nations
–
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
10.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
–
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. UNCTAD is the organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment. The primary objective of UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development including trade, aid, transport, finance, the conference ordinarily meets once in four years, the permanent secretariat is in Geneva. One of the achievements of UNCTAD has been to conceive. It was argued in UNCTAD that to promote exports of manufactured goods from developing countries, since imports of such items from other developed countries are subject to the normal rates of duties, imports of the same items from developing countries would enjoy a competitive advantage. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established to provide a forum where the countries could discuss the problems relating to their economic development. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, UNCTAD was closely associated with the idea of a New International Economic Order, currently, UNCTAD has 194 member states and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. UNCTAD has 400 staff members and a regular budget of $138 million in core expenditures. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group, there are non-governmental organizations participating in the activities of UNCTAD. As of October 2012,194 states are UNCTAD members, all UN members, UNCTAD members are divided into four lists, the division being based on United Nations Regional Groups with six members unassigned, Armenia, Kiribati, Nauru, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tuvalu. List A consists mostly of countries in the African and Asia-Pacific Groups of the UN, list B consists of countries of the Western European and Others Group. List C consists of countries of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, list D consists of countries of the Eastern European Group. The lists are similar to those of UNIDO, an UN specialized agency, not assigned countries, Armenia, Kiribati, Nauru, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tuvalu. Other states that do not participate are Cook Islands, Niue, in response to developing country anxiety at their worsening position in world trade, the United Nations General Assembly voted for a one off conference. At Geneva, the LDCs were successful in their proposal for the conference with its Secretariat to become a permanent organ of the UN, with meetings every four years. The New Delhi Conference, held in February and March 1968, was a forum that allowed developing countries to reach agreement on principles of their development policies. The conference in New Delhi was an opportunity for schemes to be finally approved, the conference provided a major impetus in persuading the North to follow up UNCTAD I resolutions, in establishing generalised preferences. The target for private and official flows to LDCs was raised to 1% of the Norths GNP and this has proven a continuing point of debate at UNCTAD conferences
11.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
–
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member States. It is one of five regional commissions under the direction of United Nations headquarters. It has 56 member States, and reports to the United Nations Economic, besides countries in Europe, it also includes Canada, the Central Asian republics, Israel and the United States of America. The UNECE secretariat headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, and has a budget of US$50 million. The 56 member countries are listed below,18 of the UNECEs member countries are recipients of official development assistance. CEP is the governing body of UNECE environmental activities. Participating and/or facilitating the exchange of experience in a number of activities undertaken under the leadership of UNECE. In 1947, UNECE set up a Panel on Housing Problems, the Committee is an intergovernmental body of all UNECE member States. The UNECE Transport Division has been providing services to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. The UNECE Statistical Division provides the secretariat for the Conference and its expert groups, the Statistical Division develops guidelines and training materials on statistical methodology and practices, in response to demands from member countries. The UNECE Statistical Division also provides assistance to South-East European, East European, Caucasus. 2) A biennial overview of key statistics for member countries, UNECE Countries in Figures, 3) A set of wikis to support collaboration activities and disseminate information about good practices. UNECE conducted the Fertility and Family Survey in the 1990s in 23 member States, with over 150,000 participants and this activity has hence continued in the form of the Generations and Gender Programme. From 1982 to 2007 the IOS Press published the Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on behalf of the UNECE
12.
United Nations System
–
The United Nations System consists of the United Nations, its subsidiary organs, the specialized agencies, and affiliated organizations. This body, chaired by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations System includes the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies, specialized agencies, and affiliated organizations. Some of the organizations of the United Nations System predate the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and were inherited after the dissolution of the League of Nations, the principal organ of the UN System was the United Nations itself. It has also established a number of subsidiary organs. The United Nations Security Council is one of the organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and its powers are exercised through United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946 at Church House, Westminster, there are 15 members of the Security Council, consisting of five veto-wielding permanent members and 10 elected non-permanent members with two-year terms. This basic structure is set out in Chapter V of the UN Charter, Security Council members must always be present at UN headquarters in New York so that the Security Council can meet at any time. The United Nations Economic and Social Council constitutes one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and it is responsible for co-ordinating the economic, social and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, their functional commissions and five regional commissions. ECOSOC has 54 members, it holds a four-week session each year in July, since 1998, it has also held a meeting each April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The ECOSOC serves as the forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states. The United Nations Secretariat is headed by the United Nations Secretary-General and it provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for their meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the UN Economic and Social Council, the Charter provides that the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any authority other than the UN. Each UN member country is enjoined to respect the character of the Secretariat. The Secretary-General alone is responsible for staff selection, the International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, the last was Palau, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which became a member state of the United Nations in December 1994. The separately-administered funds and programmes, research and training institutes, throughout its history the United Nations General Assembly has established a number of programmes and funds to address particular humanitarian and development concerns. These bodies usually report to the General Assembly through an executive board, each of the funds and programmes is headed by an Executive Director at the Under-Secretary-General level and is governed by an Executive Board
13.
Swiss Federal Council
–
While the entire council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each Councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The position of Federal President rotates among the seven Councillors on a yearly basis, when the Constitution was written, constitutional democracy was still in its infancy, and the founding fathers of Switzerland had little in the way of examples. While they drew heavily on the U. S, Constitution for the organisation of the federal state as a whole, they opted for the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive branch of government. This accommodated the long tradition of the rule of collective bodies in Switzerland, today, only three other states, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra and San Marino, have collective rather than unitary heads of state. However the collegial system of government has found widespread adoption in modern democracies in the form of government with collective responsibility. Nonetheless, some significant developments deserve to be mentioned here, the 1848 Constitution was one of the few successes of the Europe-wide democratic revolutions of 1848. In Switzerland, the movement was led – and the new federal state decisively shaped – by the Radicals. After winning the Sonderbund War against the Catholic cantons, the Radicals at first used their majority in the Federal Assembly to fill all the seats on the Federal Council and this made their former war opponents, the Catholic-Conservatives, the opposition party. Only after Emil Weltis resignation in 1891 after a referendum on railway nationalisation did the Radicals decide to co-opt the Conservatives by supporting the election of Josef Zemp. The process of involving all political movements of Switzerland into the responsibility of government continued during the first half of the 20th century. It was hastened by the FDPs and CVPs gradually diminishing voter shares and these were the Social Democratic Party on the Left and the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents on the Right. In due course, the CVP received its seat in 1919 with Jean-Marie Musy. In 1943, during World War II, the Social Democrats were also included with Ernst Nobs. During that time, the FDP and CVP very slowly but steadily kept losing voter share to the SVP and SP, respectively, which overtook the older parties in popularity during the 1990s. The governmental balance was changed after the 2003 elections, when the SVP was granted a Council seat for their leader Christoph Blocher that had belonged to the CVPs Ruth Metzler. This led to a split of the SVP in 2008, the SVP regained its second seat on the Council in 2015, when Widmer-Schlumpf decided to resign after the SVPs large election gains in the 2015 election, being replaced by Guy Parmelin. Women gained suffrage on the level in 1971. They remained unrepresented in the Federal Council for three legislatures, until the 1984 election of Elisabeth Kopp
14.
United Nations Information Service at Geneva
–
UNIS Geneva operates from the United Nations Office at Geneva, the second-biggest of the four major office sites of the United Nations after the UNs main Headquarters in New York. It is also the United Nations Information Centre for Switzerland, the Service provides information services focusing primarily on Geneva-based United Nations activities in the field of human rights, disarmament, development and economic and social issues. UNIS Geneva also highlights disarmament efforts, reporting on the work of the Conference on Disarmament, relief assistance is also a focus of the Services work, Geneva being the world capital of humanitarian activity. UNIS Geneva also conveys the position of the United Nations on matters in the news through its briefings, official statements, interviews and it provides both breaking news and in-depth material to international print and audiovisual media. All publications are available on the UNIS webpage, UNIS Geneva is also responsible for guided tours of the Palais des Nations, which is the headquarters of the United Nations Office at Geneva, with over 100,000 visitors each year. The UN Information Service at Geneva offers lectures by UN staff members on the UN in general, the themes of the programmes range from human rights and humanitarian affairs to disarmament and peacekeeping operations. United Nations United Nations Information Centres UNIS webpage
15.
Conference on Disarmament
–
The Conference on Disarmament is a forum established by the international community to negotiate multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. Established in 1979, it was the used by its member states, currently numbering 65, to negotiate the Biological Weapons Convention. Resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly often request the conference to consider specific disarmament matters, in turn, the conference annually reports its activities to the Assembly. The Conference succeeded the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament, the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, australia then sent the text to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where it was submitted as a draft resolution. On 10 September 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted by a large majority, currently under discussion are a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, a pact to prevent an arms race in outer space, nuclear disarmament, and negative security assurances. On June 28,2011, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea was appointed to serve a term as president of the Conference. Despite the fact that the chairmanship rotates alphabetically, the move was criticized in the media, from May 27 to June 23,2013, the Islamic Republic of Iran was acting chair and president of the Conference on Disarmament. The conferences 65 members represent all areas of the world, including all known nuclear-weapon states, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs United Nations page of Conference on Disarmament Press releases of Conference on Disarmament Disarmament insight website
16.
International Labour Organization
–
The International Labour Organization is a United Nations agency dealing with labour problems, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all. The ILO has 187 member states,186 of the 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO, the ILO registers complaints against entities that are violating international rules, however, it does not impose sanctions on governments. Unlike other United Nations specialized agencies, the International Labour Organization has a governing structure – representing governments, employers. The rationale behind the structure is the creation of free and open debate among governments. The ILO secretariat is referred to as the International Labour Office, juan Somavía was the ILOs director-general from 1999 until October 2012, when Guy Ryder was elected as his replacement. This governing body is composed of 28 government representatives,14 workers representatives, ten of the government seats are held by member states that are nations of chief industrial importance, as first considered by an impartial committee. The nations are Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the terms of office are three years. The ILO organizes the International Labour Conference in Geneva every year in June, also known as the parliament of labour, the conference also makes decisions about the ILOs general policy, work programme and budget. Each member state has four representatives at the conference, two government delegates, a delegate and a worker delegate. All of them have individual voting rights, and all votes are equal, the employer and worker delegates are normally chosen in agreement with the most representative national organizations of employers and workers. Usually, the workers delegates coordinate their voting, as do the employers delegates, all delegate have the same rights, and are not required to vote in blocs. Through July 2011, the ILO has adopted 189 conventions, if these conventions are ratified by enough governments, they become in force. However, ILO conventions are considered international labour standards regardless of ratification, when a convention comes into force, it creates a legal obligation for ratifying nations to apply its provisions. Every year the International Labour Conferences Committee on the Application of Standards examines a number of alleged breaches of international labour standards, governments are required to submit reports detailing their compliance with the obligations of the conventions they have ratified. Conventions that have not been ratified by member states have the legal force as do recommendations. In 1998, the 86th International Labour Conference adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles, the ILO asserts that its members have an obligation to work towards fully respecting these principles, embodied in relevant ILO Conventions. The ILO Conventions which embody the principles have now been ratified by most member states. Recommendations do not have the force of conventions and are not subject to ratification
17.
International Trade Centre
–
The International Trade Centre is a subsidiary organization of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and provides trade-related technical assistance. The pure focus on technical assistance is rare within the UN system as most other organizations that provide technical assistance usually engage in multiple areas, ITC has its headquarters in Geneva and one field office in Mexico City. The agreement was reached in 1967 and the International Trade Centre was officially established on 1 January 1968, iTCs service offering is nowhere described in a systematical way. Thus, the following description necessarily contains inaccuracies, ITC offers numerous different services to its beneficiaries. In doing so it differentiates between three groups of beneficiaries, Policymakers trade-support institutions, and enterprises. Some services are designed for one of these groups while others have a universal character. In principle, there is no predefined list of services that ITC is limited to, an interactive online database on international trade statistics. It presents indicators on export performance, international demand, alternative markets, users can choose to see the data either with pre-calculated trade indicators or in times-series from 2001 onward. In 2012, Trade Map, in collaboration with Kompass, included company contact information module to help companies identify trading partners in 64 countries, Trade Map sources yearly data from UN COMTRADE and collect monthly data directly from national statistics bureaus or customs authorities. An analytical web application the serves the Millennium Development Goals efforts the aim of enhancing market access transparency, Market Access Map is used by both economic operators to find information on market requirements and trade policymakers to prepare for trade negotiations. By 2015, Market Access Map includes MFN and preferential tariffs of over 190 countries as well as Non-Tariff Measures data for approximately 70 countries and it recently became available in French and Spanish in response to growing number of active users from Latin America and Africa. ITC had since its creation in 1964 six Executive Directors, twice in its history the position was vacant, in the early Seventies and the early Nineties. ITCs Executive Director is an international civil servant of the United Nations with the level of Assistant Secretary-General. ITCs Executive Director as well as the Deputy-Executive Director are appointed by the heads of its two parent organizations, the Director-General of the WTO and the Secretary-General of the UNCTAD, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Trade Organization Trade and development Official website
18.
International Telecommunication Union
–
ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group. ITU has been an intergovernmental public-private partnership organization since its inception, ITU was formed in 1865, in Paris, at the International Telegraph Convention, this makes it one of the oldest intergovernmental organizations in the world. ITU became a United Nations specialized agency in 1947, the ITU comprises three sectors, each managing a different aspect of the matters handled by the Union, as well as ITU Telecom. The sectors were created during the restructuring of ITU at its 1992 Plenipotentiary Conference, radiocommunication Established in 1927 as the International Radio Consultative Committee or CCIR, this sector manages the international radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbit resources. In 1992, the CCIR became the ITU-R, Standardization Standardization was the original purpose of ITU since its inception. Established in 1956 as the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee or CCITT, in 1993, the CCITT became the ITU-T. Development Established in 1992, this sector helps spread equitable, sustainable and affordable access to information and communication technologies, ITU Telecom ITU Telecom organizes major events for the worlds ICT community. A permanent General Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General, manages the work of the Union. The basic texts of the ITU are adopted by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, the ITU is headed by a Secretary-General, who is elected to a four-year term by the member states at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. On 23 October 2014 Houlin Zhao was elected 19th Secretary-General of the ITU at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan and his four-year mandate started on 1 January 2015, and he was formally inaugurated on 15 January 2015. There are 193 Member States of the ITU, which are all UN member states, the most recent member state to join the ITU is South Sudan, which became a member on 14 July 2011. The Republic of China was blocked from membership by the Peoples Republic of China, palestine was admitted as an observer in 2010. The Summit was held as two conferences in 2003 and 2005 in Geneva and Tunis, respectively, with the aim of bridging the digital divide, in December 2012, the ITU facilitated The World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012 in Dubai. WCIT-12 was a conference to address International Telecommunications Regulations, the international rules for telecommunications. The previous conference to update the Regulations was held in Melbourne in 1988, in August 2012, ITU called for a public consultation on a draft document ahead of the conference. Telecommunications ministers from 193 countries attended the conference in Dubai, the current regulatory structure was based on voice telecommunications, when the Internet was still in its infancy. In 1988, telecommunications operated under regulated monopolies in most countries, as the Internet has grown, organizations such as ICANN have come into existence to manage key resources such as Internet addresses and Domain Names. Some outside the United States believe that the United States exerts too much influence over the governance of the Internet, current proposals look to take into account the prevalence of data communications
19.
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
–
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. UNAIDS seeks to prevent the HIV/AIDS epidemic from becoming a severe pandemic, UNAIDS is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, where it shares some site facilities with the World Health Organization. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group and its first executive director was Peter Piot, Michel Sidibé currently leads UNAIDS. The agency promotes the GIPA principle formulated in 1994, and endorsed by the United Nations in 2001 and 2006. The aim of UNAIDS is to mount and support an expanded response to HIV/AIDS, one that engages the efforts of many sectors and partners from government. Peter Piot was the first executive director of UNAIDS and he served from its inception in 1995 until 2008, when he departed to lead the Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London. On 1 January 2009, Michel Sidibé became the new director of UNAIDS. Jan Beagle is the Deputy Executive Director of Management and Governance, UNAIDS has ten global Goodwill Ambassadors who help strengthen awareness of the organisations work. The United Nations Declaration Commitment on HIV/AIDS provides the framework for UNAIDS action. Promoting partnerships among various stakeholders is reflected within the section of the Declaration of Commitment. UNAIDS works to promote partnerships among and between this diverse and broad range of non-state entities, UNAIDS has collaborated with the Roman Catholic Church, especially Caritas Internationalis, in the fight against AIDS, something which materialized in a December 2005 message by Pope Benedict XVI. However, it indicated in a 2009 communiqué that it did not agree that condoms were unhelpful in AIDS prevention and this includes support for approaches intended to increase participation, improve connectedness of efforts and strengthen the various participants capacity for action. To fulfil this mandate, UNAIDS is supported by contributions from governments, foundations, corporations, private groups. In 2003, more than US$118.5 million was received from 30 governments, philanthropic organizations, individuals from around the world, the largest donors were the Netherlands followed by Norway, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. In 2004,35 governments contributed to UNAIDS
