The dramatic humanitarian situation in many countries is a growing concern in international Geneva - at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview on 1 December by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the growing gap between increasing needs and available resources became abundantly clear. Humanitarian actors in Geneva managed to play an important role in the extension of the Black Sea Grains Initiative.
A Special Session of the Human Rights Council on Iran succeeded in setting up an independ-ent international fact-finding mission. For his part, the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is already setting the tone. In the WHO, many lines of conflict – some of which were anticipated - are crystallising in the preparatory work for a pandemic agreement, though these should be overcome by the World Health Assembly in 2024.
The brief honeymoon period after the June Ministerial Conference at the WTO is over: Fisheries discussions are blocked due to disagreements about personnel questions, there is no consensus on the difficult dossier of patent rights; there is however more movement on electronic trade. At the same time, prominent dispute settlement cases are coming into focus. The next Ministerial Conference will be held on 26 February in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
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