UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay came down hard on Sri Lanka's post-war report
(Land mine information corrected) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s international profile was particularly high during the past week.
The Human Rights Council condemned Syria but also highlighted growing concerns over Sri Lanka, the World Trade Organization picked up the Acta Internet freedom debate, Cern announced it will be using cloud computing to help handle massive LHC data and a campaign was kicked off to to raise awareness about anti-personnel landmine issues.
The International Red Cross Saturday morning 3 March has a team ready to provide emergency supplies to badly hit Baba Amr in Homs, Syria, after being told it could go in, with permission then denied.
Highlights from international Geneva actions during the week of 28 February – 2 March:
Cern and the computing cloud GenevaLunch story 1 March; Reuters
Human Rights Council Syria: GenevaLunch story 1 March, NY Times, Palestine News Network, Ria Novosti. Sri Lanka: The country’s ambassador to the country, Tamara Kunanayakam, reacted strongly, as did media in Sri Lanka, to a resolution presented by the US and the European Union that call for Colombo to speed up efforts to restore peace. The resolution came as Sri Lanka published a report by its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was also criticized by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who said it fell short of the accountability process demanded by UN Experts.
Kunanayakam argued that the council is overstepping bounds in not allowing the LLRC, a domestic panel created by the president, to complete its work, and she called the US in particular “impatient”, saying that “the majority of the international community supports Sri Lanka’s efforts and its stand that a functioning domestic mechanism should not be circumvented by interference until its conclusion. ‘The hypocrisy and the double standard thus displayed (by the US and the European Union), if should they be encouraged would affect the credibility and undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council,’ the Sri Lankan ambassador warned,” reports Colombo Page.
Marla Otero, a US under-secretary of state, speaking to the council in Geneva 2 March, said “We know from experience that there can be no lasting peace without reconciliation and accountability, but the United States is concerned that, in Sri Lanka, time is slipping away. The international community has waited nearly three years for action, and while we welcome the release of the LLRC report, the recommendations of the report should be implemented. ”
ICBL, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Nobel Laureate organization, kicked off its “Lend your leg” action to call attention to the landmine issue and to urge governments to put a full stop to the devastating harm mines cause in the run-up to mine awareness day 4 April. The 13th anniversary of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention was 1 March.
ICRC, International Red Cross, was told by the Syrian government 1 March that it could enter the battered city of Homs to provide emergency food and medical supplies to thousands of civilians who have been the victims of weeks of shelling. But Friday 2 March the head of the ICRC said they were not allowed to enter the area as promised. “It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help,” said ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger. “We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amr in the very near future. In addition, many families have fled Baba Amr, and we will help them as soon as we possibly can.”
WTO, World Trade Organization Media attention to Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been focused mainly on the European Commission and European Parliament arguments over the hotly debated legislation, but it was also under scrutiny this week in Geneva.
IP Watch carries a lengthy article on the Acta debate, which prompted 2.5 million people to sign a petition given to the European Parliament, opposing it. IP Watch reports that Acta was discussed in the WTO “in the context of enforcement trends on the agenda of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” which met at the start of last week. It cites one unnamed participant: “Acta was considered one of the ‘tools’ governments had against counterfeiting and piracy, but now there is misinformation about it that is leading to reactions, the participant said. In particular, the Acta debate gets ‘mixed up’ with copyright issues, when copyright itself is not addressed in Acta, the participant said.
“‘Acta enforces copyright. It does not say something is legal or illegal,’ the participant said. ‘Acta gives a tool to address illegality. Acta does not say what is a copyright infringement.’”
Strong opposition to Acta is linked in part to international opposition to Pipa, a US law that prompted Wikipedia and scores of other major Internet organizations to call a one-day whiteout 17 January 2012.
Next job: upgrade energy efficiency at the UN Palais
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss federal government will give Geneva CHF54 in additional funds in 2012, the bulk of which will go to the UN Palais building for renovations to make the 1936 structure more energy efficient, Bern announced Wednesday 29 June.
“International Geneva” will also receive CHF4 million a year starting in 2012 and another CHF600,000 to cover the cost of four new jobs starting in 2013, funds designed to increase the city’s competitiveness in wooing international congresses and conferences.
The federal government also noted Wednesday that it is increasing its contribution to the rent paid by international organizations, without specifying the amount.
The Palais has 52 elevators, 5km of corridors, a very complex electrical network and several heating, ventilation and air conditioning stations.
Ruth Dreifuss, former Swiss president, who grew up in the Secheron district in Geneva, attended a December 2008 presentation on the development of the international Geneva project, near the WTO.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The proposed extension to the World Trade Organization’s building at Centre William Rappard will be decided this Sunday 27 September by the city of Geneva’s voters. The vote is a strictly municipal affair, and the outcome is not binding on the canton, which has the final say on city planning decisions. But this vote is being seen as a test of the city’s commitment to the concept of Genève internationale, host to the European headquarters of the UN and to more than 30 specialized UN organizations, as well as to a large number of non-governemental organizations (NGOs).
A strong “no” vote by the citizens of Geneva would seriously weaken that commitment. Pierre Vanek, leader of the project’s opponents, points out in an interview published in Le Temps that the canton can ignore the result of a refusal, but “people wouldn’t understand why it was going against a popular vote.”
The cantonal authorities approved the building extension because the WTO urgently needs the extra space.
