Reuters: Once a city of peace, Geneva now sees UN presence fade

When the League of Nations left the 225-room Palais Wilson in Geneva in 1937, the global intergovernmental body created to keep the peace after World War I was on the verge of collapse. It died soon after, with the start of World War II, Reuters reports today.

This summer, the successor to the League of Nations, the United Nations (UN), is also leaving the same building, as the UN and other global bodies in the Swiss city are increasingly marginalized by funding cuts and a U.S. government turning its back on multilateralism, Reuters reported in the article "Once a city of peace, Geneva now sees UN presence fade."

By 2025, more than 3.000 Geneva-based jobs at the UN and international organizations have been cut or are being moved to cheaper locations, including about a fifth of UN jobs, a Reuters survey covering dozens of agencies and local authorities showed.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is moving from the Wilson Palace to a wing of the UN headquarters in Geneva, the Palais des Nations, due to what they say is a "financial crisis".

The International Labor Organization recently vacated two of the 11 floors of its Geneva headquarters. UNICEF, the UN children's agency, is relocating about 70 percent of its 400 employees from Geneva.

Some Geneva-based agencies, such as UNAIDS, dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS, are facing possible closure; many others are reducing their scope of work.

Among them is the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has reduced its Geneva-based staff to around 600 from 1.000, moving jobs to Thessaloniki, Greece, Nairobi, Bangkok and Panama, while reducing its overall staff to 16.000 from 23.000.

"I don't think we need a huge number of jobs in Geneva to do the job well," said IOM Director Amy Pope.

Cost pressures

Switzerland has pledged 269 million Swiss francs ($340 million) to support multilateral institutions in the city, while a body set up by the canton of Geneva and a foundation named after Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf have jointly pledged at least 50 million francs.

Geneva's mayor, Green politician Alfonso Gomez, said that while the city's overall economy was still doing well, budget cuts were threatening its reputation as "the capital of multilateralism."

"We are still deeply concerned. It is clear that... the abandonment of multilateralism is a concern not only for the city, but for the entire world," Gomez told Reuters.

Although the UN Security Council and General Assembly are located in New York, the UN European headquarters in Geneva has more UN staff than any other location.

Geneva hosts dozens of UN agencies, including the World Health Organization, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States on the first day of his return to power.

The budget cuts are the most drastic in the UN's 80-year history, and it is unclear whether the Trump administration will pay the more than $2 billion the US owes for the core budget.

A US State Department official told Reuters that Geneva was an understandable place for UN staff to meet with member states, but not necessarily for performing background functions.

"Unlearning lessons" from the 20th century

Other state donors have cut allocations to spend more on defense, adding to the pain in Geneva, where the UN offices occupy a Vatican-sized space in the center of the Palais des Nations, a vast complex originally built for the League of Nations, according to Reuters.

Many see this as a necessary reduction of the overly large bureaucratic apparatus.

UN international workers, who do not pay Swiss taxes, receive an additional 89,4% on their basic salary to account for the high cost of living, UN data shows. Many also receive spousal and education allowances.

But diplomats, current and former UN officials warn that the destruction of Geneva, where the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Trade Organization also face cuts, is dismantling the most visible symbol of the international order built by the United States to keep the peace after World War II.

"Geneva is an illustration of a world that is not a zero-sum game, where people and nations see value in cooperation and where one side's gain is not another side's loss," said Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

"We are relearning the lessons we thought we had learned from the terrible 20th century," he told Reuters.

Geneva hosted talks in February on the war in Ukraine and the US conflict with Iran, although US negotiators secured both talks in just one day. The conflict with Iran erupted shortly thereafter.

The Swiss government, which owns the Palais Wilson, is planning to renovate the building named after former US President Woodrow Wilson. Gomez said Geneva, which owns the land, has not yet decided what to do with it.

Robert Curzon Price, CEO of real estate firm Barnes, which is helping multilateral bodies manage the crisis, said the impact on Geneva's commercial real estate market, which accounts for about 10 percent, was unprecedented.

However, the properties are still not on the market, as the authorities that own them are waiting to see if US policy will become more multilateral again, he said.

In any case, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Bart Eide said it made little sense to base so many UN jobs in expensive cities like Geneva and New York. Instead, the UN should streamline its work, prioritize and increase resources in the field, he added.

Internal documents show the UN is moving to a leaner but more fragmented model, with Kazakhstan, Qatar and Rwanda among the countries seeking to host offices.