[❗Postponed event❗] Philippe Lazzarini, what future for UNWRA?

Due to events beyond our control, we have to postpone this event to a later date.

The Geneva Press Club is pleased to invite you to an event with :

• Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General
• Prof. Karl Blanchet, Director of the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, University of Geneva, Faculty of Medicine
• Prof. Frédéric Esposito, Director of the Bachelor in International Relations (BARI), University of Geneva, Global Studies Institute

In partnership with the University of Geneva’s Human Rights Week.

The existence of UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, has never been so threatened: its Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has been banned from entering Israel and Gaza for several months now, donor countries are freezing their financial contributions, and Israel is using its legislative arsenal to do away with UNWRA: in early October, the Israeli Parliament approved two pieces of legislation designed to put an end to the activities and status of the UN agency.
This at a time when the situation in Gaza continues to worsen: after more than a year of war between Hamas and the Israeli army, between 60% and 70% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has been destroyed – figures which also include UN facilities that could and should have served as a refuge for the population fleeing the fighting. Famine, epidemics and malnutrition loom.

Would the disappearance of UNRWA worsen the situation and set a dangerous precedent for other UN organizations elsewhere in the world, or would it, on the contrary, smooth relations between the Israeli government and the international community, led by the UN? What further courses of action and negotiations are possible for UNWRA as we approach 2025? Can Switzerland restore its support for the UN agency? How does Philippe Lazzarini, born in 1964, of Swiss and Italian nationality, experience this most exposed of functions?

Professors Karl Blanchet, Director of the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, and Frédéric Esposito, Lecturer at the Global Studies Institute, will in turn offer their expert view of the humanitarian and diplomatic situation in the Middle East.

Moderated by Isabelle Falconnier, Director of the Geneva Press Club, and Luisa Ballin, UN-accredited journalist.