Geneva NGO representatives at the US Mission in Geneva listen to Hillary Clinton
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The group of 25 representatives from Geneva’s NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) cheered as Hillary Clinton took her first question from them 16 February.
The video conference question-answer session was part of a new US initiative by US Secretary of State Clinton called “strategic dialogue with civil society”.
The first session was held with 50 US diplomatic posts from around the world, including Geneva, participating long-distance, while about 1,000 people participated in Washington.
NGOs and US diplomats consider how to best work together in Geneva
Clinton said she hoped that regular contact between civil society groups and US officials will help to build “habits of cooperation”,
increase understanding to produce practical results, share insights and make it easier to identify common problems and interests.
“Our work together on women’s rights, corruption, religious freedom and other issues is just as important as anything we do with governments,” Clinton said.
The Geneva group included NGOs that work in several fields, including human rights, environmental protection and conservation. They met with US diplomats, including ambassadors Betty E King and Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe.
One participant noted afterwards that several NGOs were positive about US efforts to have the Human Rights Council “establish the first-ever Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association”.
US Ambassador Betty E King makes Geneva press debut
Betty E King, press breakfast at the US Mission in Geneva 1 April 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “There is no better time to be here,” Betty E King, the new US ambassador to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, told a group of journalists invited to the US Mission in Geneva Thursday morning, 1 April. King knows Geneva from time spent in the city when she was the US representative to Ecosoc (UN Economic and Social Council) and from working with UNDP (UN Development Programme). She arrived nearly five weeks ago to take up her new post, replacing Warren Tichenor, who left a year ago, shortly before Barack Obama became president.
“Geneva is seeing a resurgence of diplomatic activity,” she says.
US Ambassador to UN and int'l oganizations in Geneva, Betty E King
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Betty E King presented her credentials as US ambassador to the UN Wednesday 3 March. She is now officially the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva., filling a post that has been empty since Warren Tichenor left when Barack Obama became president in January 2009.
Three other Obama appointments to Geneva, besides King await Senate confirmation: Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council and Laura Kennedy as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, as well as Michael Punke as ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
Betty E King, named US ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva
Updated 15 February (photo added) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The US Mission in Geneva announced late Friday that Betty E King was confirmed 11 February as the new US ambassador to the UN and international organizations. King was nominated to the post in late October 2009 and the confirmation came in a voice vote in the US Senate. Details about when she will take up the post are not yet available. King led an unofficial delegation to the preparatory meetings for the Durban Review Conference in 2009, in addition to the items listed by the US Mission as part of her biography.
Background, GenevaLunch
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
Update 18:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US President Barack Obama has nominated two more women for key posts in Geneva. Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe is nominated as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as a member of the US Mission to the United Nations. Her name had been circulating earlier in the year as a possible candidate for the post of US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and thus head of the US Mission, but Obama 24 October nominated Betty King for that post.
Laura Kennedy has been nominated as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CoD), as part of the Department of State, but the CoD is based in Geneva. The Conference has 65 member nations, and it famously ended a 12-year stalemate in May 2009 with a new work programme. The new agenda’s priority work is to develop the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which would end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bombs.
The two nominations, as well as that of Betty King, are subject to review by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which then makes recommendations to the full Senate, and it votes on each appointment. The process normally takes two to three months.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Betty E King of New York has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to be the new US ambassador in Geneva, to the United Nations and Other International Organizations, the US Mission in Geneva has announced. Her nomination will need the approval of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (background story on the process, GenevaLunch). The process can take two to three months.
