ONUG - PALACE OF NATIONS

"It's immense, immense", exclaimed Adrien Deume, one of the main characters in Albert Cohen's novel Belle du Seigneur, describing the Palais des Nations when it was completed. A must-read! You'll get a better idea of Geneva's atmosphere when you visit the UN. The buildings reflect the architecture of the 1930s, and are well worth exploring. The conference rooms and lounges are well worth a visit, as are the titanic galleries, notably the galerie des pas perdus, with its large bay windows opening onto the park, the lake and the breathtaking panorama of Mont Blanc. It leads to the main courtyard. It's an imposing room, all marble, with high ceilings. Another planet, where conflicts and the future of humanity are discussed, more or less helpfully.
Here you are in the holy of holies, where more than 10,000 conferences a year are held in this center of multilateral diplomacy designed to foster international relations. Let us recall the functions of the UN, which is supposed to ensure world peace and international security. The international organization is a very active conference center. 1,600 employees work on site. The UN also works to assist disarmament, promote human rights, provide humanitarian aid, develop and promote sustainable development, and uphold international law. More than thirty-five UN entities are based in Geneva, including the ICRC, UNHCR, WTO, ILO and WHO.

The UN, successor to the League of Nations, has given Geneva a unique dimension: its very identity. Thanks to the UN, the city now has an international dimension and a real openness to the world. But why was it chosen to host the organization? For its neutrality during the two world wars. Geneva is associated with the name of Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross. Rousseau helped give the city a spirit of tolerance and humanism. However, the UN's main headquarters are in New York, where the Secretary-General is based and where the Security Council and General Assembly are held. New York was chosen by the Americans as their main base. They wanted to make people forget the "failure of Geneva", the bitter failure of the League of Nations to prevent the Second World War. After New York, the main centers were Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.

Since the Second World War, the Palais des Nations has housed the European site of the United Nations. Formerly the headquarters of the League of Nations, it was built between 1929 and 1936 in the Parc de l'Ariana. At the time, it was the largest building site in Europe, and was subsequently extended.

It was required to be built on the right bank for the view of Mont Blanc, installed on the Ariana hill, because John D. Rockefeller had offered the League of Nations a library so enormous that it was impossible to install it on the site originally planned. The intention was to build a palace "dedicated to the cooperation of nations liberated from the imperialist hierarchies of previous centuries". The buildings are characterized by Art Deco and huge murals.

The Assembly Hall is well worth a visit. You'll see the superb gifts offered to the UN by member countries, such as particularly refined Persian carpets, reflecting the cultural wealth of Iran, Asian porcelain, paintings... The ceiling of one of the conference rooms was decorated by Qatar. In the main courtyard, the celestial sphere symbolizes Geneva's international character: it was donated by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in 1939 to symbolize dialogue and peace.

You can normally visit theHuman Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Hall , the large Assembly Hall (2,000 people) or the Council Chamber, the scene of numerous disarmament negotiations.

For the Human Rights Hall,the Catalan painter Miquel Barceló created a vault of multicolored stalactites symbolizing the multiplicity of viewpoints.

The Place des Nations is made up of large 4 m-wide blocks from UN member countries. The fountain with its 84 water jets is a reminder of the number of international organizations. The monumental three-legged "Broken Chair" evokes the plight of landmine victims. It's often here that people from other countries come to denounce human rights abuses in their homelands. But they'd be hard-pressed to get noticed: they're a long way from the offices, spread over kilometers of corridors, far from this magnificent avenue adorned with flags.

At the beginning of 2024, the UN premises are still undergoing renovation work. Guided tours are still limited, and the itinerary is subject to change. The premises are currently not accessible to people with reduced mobility.

Cultural trail "Quartier les Nations" : you can download a PDF or Audio version of an itinerary through the "Quartier des Nations" to identify the international organizations:

www.ville-geneve.ch/faire-geneve/promenades/sentiers-culturels/sentier-1-nations/