Inside Geneva: how has the world changed in 2024?

Journalists and photographers at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Keystone

In this week’s Inside Geneva podcast episode, journalists based at the United Nations in Geneva and New York look back at 2024. 

SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Dorian Burkhalter declares: “Wars everywhere, climate change, deepening inequalities, AI… it’s just threats everywhere. But it just seems like the more global our problems are becoming, the weaker the UN is also becoming.”

What was the biggest event of the year? 

Nick Cumming-Bruce, who reports for the New York Times, says: “It’s hard to top the US election because it’s already dominating the conversation on everything else that we’ve covered in 2024.” 

What could an isolationist America First strategy mean for the UN and the multilateral system? 

Dawn Clancy, UN correspondent in New York, says: “Pulling out of the Paris Agreement, or the WHO, threatening to cut funding, the US is the biggest funder of the UN, billions of dollars. So it’s just going to be chaos and no leadership.” 

Are we on the verge of a new world order, without the guardrails of international law, or the Geneva Conventions?

Imogen Foulkes, host of the Inside Geneva podcast, notes: “The world is changing while I’m watching in terms of our fundamental principles. The world is changing while I’m watching, and for a while I didn’t even notice it.”

Join us on Inside Geneva for an in-depth discussion of 2024, and some predictions for 2025. 

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