Geneva recently hosted the Peace Week annual forum. Inside Geneva asks what\u2019s the point, especially when there seems to be so much conflict still going on.
\u201cWhat we have to deal with is the immense stupidity of the wars that currently are in place. And here we are having to deal with wars of a sort that were better found in the history books devoted to the 20th century and ought not to have a place in the 21st,\u201d says Zeid Ra\u2019ad al Hussein, former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner.\xa0
The UN is supposed to be able to prevent, and end conflict. How is it doing?
Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group: \u201cI think the UN high command on the one hand, and the Israelis on the other hand, have just decided that in rhetorical terms their relationship cannot be saved. And they are laying into each other in very firm language.\u201d
What about individual governments, including Switzerland\u2019s?
\u201cNow is simply not the time to be further suffocating the human rights community in Israel and Palestine. The presence of armed conflict makes human rights defenders work more, not less, important. This is the exact wrong moment to stop supporting civil society,\u201d says Erin Kilbride, a researcherat Human Rights Watch.\xa0
Are politics getting in the way of humanity?
\u201cThere are two problems here: the first is the difference between humanitarian and political. And in a situation of war, which we\u2019re in now, it\u2019s very difficult to make that distinction,\u201d adds Daniel Warner, a political analyst.\xa0
Join host Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva podcast to listen to the full interviews.\xa0
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