Farewell words from Ambassador Bard

Ambassador Veronika Bard

Five years in Geneva started with the breath-taking view of Mont Blanc and the less distant and surmountable Le Môle. On clear days, they seemed close from my office window if I raised the gaze from Palais Wilson and the Lake of the 20 winds. Yes, besides the chilling and freezing La Bise, there are at least 19 other types of wind. This view will stay engraved in my memory like the fate of the many people we claim to care about according to the statutes and mandates of the organizations based in Geneva. With them also the formidable, engaged colleagues I got to know who represent international organizations, NGO's and the governments of many of the 193 UN member states.

The winds are very symbolical. Not only do they shape the climate of Geneva and its lovely surroundings, but they also represent the volatility of the political landscape and the challenges national governments and the multilateral system are faced with these days.

One of my first encounters when I arrived in September 2015 as representative of a not so insignificant donor country was the then head of UNHCR, Mr Antonio Guterres. Like many, he was quite optimistic judging from the initial reactions that political leaders - with the help of the multilateral system, born out of a much more precarious situation in 1945 - would cope with the big number of people on the move. UN member states and the multilateral system delivered in New York in 2016 in the way we were used to by launching the Global Compact on Refugees and one for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. We know what happened then.

Here the winds play a role again. National winds at times grew stronger than the international ones and lately the notion ''that you are stronger alone than trying to solve challenges together'' has imposed itself in almost every field of work we deal with in Geneva. There are two subjects however where this idea lately has been put to question. Climate and health. It is not because Greta Thunberg is a fellow citizen that climate change, environmental degradation and extinction of habitats of plants and species come to my mind. The effects of climate change and its costs for individuals and societies grow more and more tangible and visible and cannot be contained within national borders. There is a similarity here with the latest plague that has struck us at the outset of the great 2020-ies. Likewise it is hard to deny but rather obvious from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that an international, global approach and solidarity are as essential for the national response as is the cooperation to mitigate the severe effects and collateral damage that has hit not only individuals but whole societies.

Despite all the gloom I come to think of looking back to the view from my office window; the Lake, Mont Blanc and Le Môle will be a lasting impression representing the beauty of nature and life, as will the impressive Palais Wilson as a reminder and testimony that the individual still counts. You, as an actor whatever you represent in Geneva, count. But what first and foremost counts is the strength of the individual we claim to serve who tries to find solutions and a better future be it in a conflict, in a refugee camp, on the move, in a natural disaster situation or just simply to find a job or make his or her view and voice heard.

As we use to say in UN speak, and it applies not only to human rights and the actors in International Geneva, but to all challenges we are faced with - they are inalienable, indivisible and interdependent. So to my successor and all the great individuals who devote their work in Geneva and in the field to give every child, every woman and man a chance to grow, develop and succeed, remember and act on the anomaly that "not only nature but everything is connected and interrelated only we are not ''(quote from the head of a Geneva organization).