Switzerland’s proposed responsible business reforms: no great expectations
Agent Provocateur is Global Geneva’s oped section.
The campaigners for the initiative were attempting to end the impunity of Swiss multinational corporations against human rights abuses and environmental...
Switzerland’s re-opening: Everyone for themselves
Agent Provocateur is Global Insight Magazine's oped component. This is open to invited writers or those organizations that contribute to Global Geneva Group. All content, however, must meet our editorial standards.
The United States needs a peace conference
Now blood has been shed. With the attempted autogolpe and insurrection
that led to the brief occupation of the U.S. Capitol last week, and five
deaths, any notion that partisan divides in the United...
Eliminating nuclear weapons before they eliminate us
Last month on 24 October 2020, the Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW),
adopted in July 2017 by 122 states at the United Nations, reached 50
ratifications. This triggered the treaty's entry into...
The Ethiopian-Tigray Conflict: View of a worsening situation from the other side of the...
Fleeing violence in Tigray, Ethiopia, more than 61,000 people have registered as refugees after crossing the border into Sudan since November 2020. Recently, I visited two refugee camps - Al Hashabat and...
Overfishing: The greatest threat to our oceans
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights Magazine's op-ed section.
If you turn on the world news you may hear about plastic waste killing
sea mammals, melting glaciers, illegal dumping, and...
The 2021 Martin Ennals Award: Yu Wensheng of China
Updated: 1850 Hours. Thursday, 11 February, 2021. The Awards ceremony, including profile videos of the three finalists, can be watched HERE.
Agent Provocateur is Global Geneva’s op-ed column for quality...
Focus on Afghanistan: Jaw-Jaw is the only Solution
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights' op-ed section.
A moment of truth is in the offing for Afghanistan’s estimated 35 million people, plus the 5-6 million in the diaspora...
Contesting statelessness in the Dominican Republic
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights’ oped section
Large scale migration has historically occurred between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which together share the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. Fuelled by political...
Understanding Nagorno Karabakh
A recent speech by Russian politician and former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has again provoked active debate on social networks. At first glance, the speeches by various leaders about about...
The power of creativity: a path to healing for survivors of sexual violence, war...
Agent Provocateur is Global Insight Magazine's op-ed section.
At first, she was frozen in silence, unable even to make eye contact. Eventually, she wove her unspoken, unspeakable memories...
The UN must not fail the people of Myanmar…again.
Earlier this month on 12 July, 2021, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on Myanmar, the latest of a series of resolutions by UN bodies since the military coup...
L’Appel de Genève demande la libération de Julian Assange
C’est au nom des valeurs humanitaires enracinées à Genève, Cité de paix, du dialogue et des droits de l’Homme que cet appel est lancé, affirment les signataires. Julian Assange, dont la santé...
Focus on Afghanistan: What did you expect?
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights op-ed column.
America entered Afghanistan in November 2001 to avenge the 9/11 attacks on the United States. However, there was never any...
The case for letting go of humanitarian reform
While there’s consensus that the humanitarian system is under stress, successive waves of reform over the past couple of decades have failed. Five years after a laundry list of changes were agreed...
Focus on Afghanistan: Now or never for Afghans
Agent Provocateur is Global Insight Magazine's op-ed column.
In his first speech at the Security Council four years ago, the United Nations Secretary General Guterres said “Nobody is winning...
Dealing with new realities: Cities must adapt to climate change
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights oped section. This is being republished in English with the kind permission of El Pais on the occasion of World Cities Day, 31 October 2021. The...
The poor are everywhere: what can one person do?
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights’ op-ed section.
Over the past
year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened hunger and poverty in many
parts of the world. According to the World...
Not Knowing the Color of the Sky in Afghanistan
The following article is part of our oped Agent Provocateur column
Given that the United States and its international partners failed to adequately deal with the threat of...
Virtual/hybrid conferences: Has there been an event reset since COVID?
Agent Provocateur is Global Insights’ oped section
In my small world of moderating at events, however, nothing much has changed – unfortunately. I had hoped that some of the best...
Accountability is about leadership, not mechanisms.
Agent Provocateur is the oped section of Global Insights.
At the core of the problem is that we can’t decide what accountability to affected people (AAP) means. The result is...
Nobel Peace Prize 2022: recognizing courageous human rights defenders
The Norwegian Nobel Committee honours some consistent efforts in favour of humanist values, anti-militarism and principles of law.
This year’s Peace...
The Democrats’ New Clothes
If the stakes are so high — as many speakers reminded us — one would think the bar would be set even higher, not lower. The nominee should prove that he can...
Coronavirus Stories: Not just a health pandemic, but a multi-sectorial crisis requiring Africa specific...
I work with the billion first descendants of Homo sapiens. Much has happened since this continent, notably Ethiopia where I am currently based, first emerged as the birthplace of humanity. Tragically, it...
Whistleblowing: Time for international Switzerland to meet the global standard
Zurich theatre dramatizes Yasmine's whistleblower story, with music: 5-7 November 2020 (LINK)
Switzerland may be small, but it’s a diplomatically and economically crucial country. It...
Publishing World’s Evil Empire? How Facebook and other social media subvert journalism
UPDATED: 9 August, 2020. Facebook is not alone. Google, Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and other social media outlets do virtually the same thing. If reliable content, coupled with an informed public and democracy,...
The Shame of John Calvin: Will “Black Lives Matter” force Switzerland to finally acknowledge...
Artwork of John Calvin and Bob Dylan by Malcolm Reid, a Scottish-born multi-media artist living in Ascona, Switzerland, who focuses on political and social issues.
Last October,...
Impact investing and SDGs in the COVID-19 era: maths matters more than opinion
It has become a hoary cliché in many U.N. halls that the Chinese characters for crisis include both disaster and opportunity. Our interpretation of the Chinese may be due to wishful thinking...
Chronic diseases are the real pandemic: join the healthy food movement
This is how the
clergyman Thomas Malthus saw our inevitable future in the 18th
century when population expands beyond the capacity of the planet to sustain it:
“Epidemics, pestilence and plague advance in terrific array,...
COVID-19: Is the Swiss government engaged in false news and not doing its job?
One would expect Switzerland to lead by example not only because it is the host nation of the World Health Organization, the International Red Cross, the pharmaceutical giants, and the United Nations,...
Coronavirus: Community participation and credible information: the core of any serious response
The last time the world was gripped by fears of a pandemic in late 2014, my wife was not amused when I traveled to Sierra Leone – the epicenter of the Ebola...
COVID-19: The need for global solidarity and cooperation
Agent Provocateur is the Oped section of Global Geneva. The editors welcome well-written and accessible articles on relevant topics. A reminder: we make our content free worldwide. If you like what...
Peace building in the time of Coronavirus
Agent Provocateur is Global Geneva's Oped section. The editors welcome well-written and accessible articles on relevant topics.
President Emmanuel Macron’s ‘We’re at war’ address to the French nation on Monday...
Switzerland’s “Don’t Test, Don’t Tell” policy endangers its older generation
Agent Provocateur is Global Geneva's oped column.
Rather than ramping up testing on its own citizens for
Covid-19 and completely sealing off Swiss borders to the highly infected Italy
and...
Hong Kong’s Dehumanitarianism – an urgent appeal for international mediation
UPDATED 10 January 2020. See BBC Link on PTSD level in Homg Kong comparable to "conflict zones."
Did you forget somebody’s anniversary this year? Did you forget everybody’s...
Harnessing the power of on-the-spot media to achieve change
Rachel McKee of Oak Foundation in Geneva recounts how Asian journalists are working together to spur essential changes through their reporting from the field. ...
Multilateralism under Siege: Would the World Be Better without the UN?
This article is part of Global Geneva's Oped section.
The answer to the first question is a qualified “No”, to the latter an unequivocal “Yes.” My book (What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How...
Investing to prevent disaster
MUCH OF MY LONG-TERM CAREER in the United Nations has been focused on disasters, and I was often struck by the seeming randomness of the death and destruction I encountered. In the 2010 Haiti...
Polar Focus: The impact of climate change on the world’s Polar regions can no...
Agent Provocateur is Global Geneva's Oped section. This is is open to all members of the Global Geneva Support Group on condition that contributed articles meet editorial standards and are not self-promotional.
Listening to Polar...
The #MeToo movement, whistleblowing & leadership failure
Foremost is Nestlé. With final arguments submitted on 28 February 2018, the Vevey-based multinational has found itself accused of neglecting food safety by a former senior executive, Dr Yasmine Motarjemi. Against all odds, Motarjemi, a...
Toilets for all: Expanding – and capitalizing on – waste resources
London is proud of its sewers. In 1848 and 1853 cholera outbreaks killed 25,000 Londoners, and 1858 was described as the “Great Stink.” The disease was poorly understood, but the smell finally provoked action....
Surviving Nuremberg trial lawyer calls for UN whistleblowing reform
A slightly shorter version of this article was first published in the Oct/Nov. 2017 print and e-edition of Global Geneva magazine.
THE UN WAS CREATED IN 1945 not only to maintain global peace and security,...
The right place for the world’s human rights award
This article was first published in the Oct/Nov 2017 print and e-edition of Global Geneva magazine.
An international jury of 10 leading human rights organizations awarded the 2017 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders to Egyptian...
Israel: Fifty years of shrinking democracy
Geneva Hub is open to any member of the Global Geneva Support Community or guest writer at the invitation of the editors. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which selected Physicians for Human Rights -...
Trade for Aid But Get Paid
Agents Provocateurs is a print and online oped section open to all members of the Global Geneva Support Community or at the specific invitation of the editors.
As you sit drinking your tea or coffee...
Making the SDGs Real
A few years ago I interviewed the Director of one of China’s Special Economic Zones. I asked him what he felt about the new low-carbon production standards that many investors wanted and that had...
