GREYCELLS INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE 2024
THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL GENEVA IN THE UN 2.0
Summary of the Steering Committee 9 February 2024, via Zoom
1. Dissemination of the online anonymous survey :
Today at 12.00 we had 16 replies in English, 16 in French, 2 in Spanish (total 34): quite a good result one week after the launching. More replies will certainly come in the next days with the dissemination through the networks of UNDP, CAGI, C4UN, CoNGO, the Geneva School of Diplomacy, the Caux Foundation, LIMUN and others.
Please remember to share the survey and the Youth Contest in your own social networks, and don’t forget to reply yourself ! Thank you.
Attached: English and French flyers for easier dissemination. Feel free to produce your own flyer or poster and to highlight the logo of your association / entity but please keep the logo of the Dialogue for the sake of visual coherence.
2. Content on the Programme of the debate on 25 April :
To strengthen the intergenerational feature of the Dialogue, it was agreed to aim at including a young commentator in each one of the 3 panels, and to identify Master of PhD students or young researchers, based in Geneva or anywhere in the world (via Zoom) as potential panelists. All members of the Steering Committee are kindly invited to share their suggestions in this regard. Attention will be given to non-Geneva based perspectives (for example, experts based in a developing country working on a Geneva topic). Please remember that each Panel will include 10’ for QAs from the floor and via Zoom for further interventions and issues.
The presentation of the “Geneva Policy Outlook” at the Graduate Institute on 27 February provides an opportunity to identify potential panellists mentioned below.
The following are the options of topics and panellists discussed, taking into account that we need to select 2 topics for each panel. These options illustrate International Geneva specificities and assets in the multilateral system, and they all are relevant for the UN Summit of the Future. Almost all these topics can fit within more than one panel: they are identified with a (*). This programme has to be finalised by the end of March.
PANEL 1 – THE NORMATIVE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL GENEVA
1.1 ITU / ISO / Human rights regulations on AI, internet governance – Roxana Radu (Oxford Univ.) https://www.genevapolicyoutlook.ch/the-variable-geometry-of-ai-governance/
1.2 WTO/ climate change/sustainable development : Raymond Saner (C-Send) https://www.diplomacydialogue.org/publications/trade-diplomacy/the-wto-climate-change-and-sustainable-development.html (*)
1.3 WTO/WIPO/WHO : trade, intellectual property rules and health, pandemic treaty : Carlos M.Correa (South Center) (*)
1.4 Human rights (OHCHR) and business : binding rules being negotiated : Gabriele Koehler (Greycells)
1.5 Human right to healthy and clean environment : OHCHR or a NGO or an expert
1.6 Geneva Conventions, IHL, human rights and economic warfare: Hugo Slim (Oxford Univ.), Ignacio Parker (*)
PANEL 2 – MULTIDISCIPLINARITY IS A GENEVA ROUTINE
2.1 Eco-social-environmental contract to fight inequalities– UNRISD – Paul Ladd https://www.unrisd.org/en/research/projects/unrisd-flagship-report-2022-on-inequalities-and-a-new-eco-social-contract
2.2 Trade and gender – UNCTAD – Simonetta Zarrilli
2.3 WTO/WIPO/WHO : trade, intellectual property rules and health, pandemic treaty : Carlos M.Correa (South Center) (*)
2.4 Climate change impact on refugees and migrants flows : HCR, or a NGO or an expert or Manuel Marques Pereira and Ileana Sinziana Puscas (IOM see Geneva Policy Outlook https://www.genevapolicyoutlook.ch/walking-the-talk-of-environmental-migration-in-2023/ )
2.5 WTO/ climate change/sustainable development : Raymond Saner (C-Send) (*)
2.6 Geneva Conventions, IHL, human rights and economic warfare: Hugo Slim (Oxford Univ.), https://www.genevapolicyoutlook.ch/global-economic-warfare-needs-new-rules/
PANEL 3 – GENEVA KNOWS A LOT ABOUT MULTISTAKEHOLDERS’ MECHANISMS
3.1 ITU / UNICEF initiative for schools’ affordable connectivity : Christopher Fabian (UNICEF-ITU Giga see Geneva Policy Outlook : https://www.genevapolicyoutlook.ch/technology-startups-for-global-impact-how-geneva-can-cultivate-new-talent-and-industries/
3.2 ILO tripartism : International Organisation of Employers or a representative of workers at ILO
3.3 Humanitarian aid, ICRC, NGOs (Médecins sans frontières ?), OCHA (Ignacio Packer ?)
3.4 Private sector / foundations at WHO (David Woolcombe ?)
3.5 GESDA Geneva Science Diplomacy Anticipator https://gesda.global/
3. Other business and questions:
Relation of this Dialogue and the UN Summit of the Future and its Zero Draft of the Pact: the focus and main goal of this Dialogue is to identify Geneva specifities and assets in the multilateral system and for the UN Summit of the Future. These specificities and assets will be conveyed to the NY negotiators and the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi. The current Zero Draft is a moving background that is a reference, but it should not determine the content of this Dialogue. In fact, the topic and the intergenerational format this Dialogue have their own value per se, even in the absence of the UN Summit. The final Communiqué resulting from the survey, the Youth Contest and the debate on 25 April will reflect how International Geneva is well equipped for the multilateral system of the future and to address the challenges of globalisation with concrete mechanisms and rules, and with a 100-years old experience of international cooperation.
NEXT MEETING : THURSDAY 22 FEBRUARY, 12:30-1:30 Zoom https://bit.ly/GREYCELLS_MEETING