Hey guys! It's been few weeks, but I am so excited to come back with this new blog about the city of Geneva in Switzerland. I have been there 5 times, first visiting when I was doing my University in Europe, also representing the government of Colombia twice, and the last 2 times going to the AI for Good Summit from United Nations.

*AI for Good Summit 2025, Palexpo Geneva*

(Wanna know more about my experience there? Follow my Newsletter “Social Sciences for AI” here)

Geneva is not the Switzerland of postcards. No mountain yodeling. No cuckoo clocks. No cozy clichés. Instead, it’s something much more interesting: A city that has quietly shaped global history by choosing to help again and again…

Before it was even part of Switzerland, Geneva was a fiercely independent republic, home to thinkers, reformers, and refugees. From the 1500s to today, it has built a legacy as a safe harbor for people displaced by politics, religion, or war.

Today, Geneva is known as the humanitarian capital of the world, and it is home to the United Nations, the Red Cross, and more than 700 NGOs. But it didn’t stumble into that role. It was built on the principles of refuge, responsibility, diversity and resilience.

*International Committee of the Red Cross*

You feel it in the mix of languages on the tram and in the way this city continues to hold space for hope, dialogue, and human dignity.

A REPUBLIC OF REFUGEES

Let’s start with something most people don’t know: Geneva was welcoming refugees 500 years before UNHCR existed.

In the 16th century, the city offered asylum to thousands of Huguenots (french protestants) escaping persecution. These newcomers helped Geneva flourish, bringing skills in printing, teaching, and jewelry-making.

But there was a twist: under the Protestant reformer Jean Calvin, Geneva banned luxury. Jewelry was forbidden. So the Huguenots adapted, turning to a new trade: watchmaking. That’s how Geneva became the global capital of timepieces, luxury born from exile and austerity.

And Geneva’s role as a refuge didn’t end there…

In the centuries that followed, the city became a sanctuary for Italian republicans fleeing the failed 1848 revolutions, Russian intellectuals and revolutionaries escaping tsarist repression, and Spanish republicans after the civil war. Some of these thinkers, like Lenin, even used Geneva as a base in exile.

Survivors of the Armenian genocide found aid here in the early 20th century, and long before the United Nations was born, Geneva had already hosted the League of Nations and offered protection to those displaced by World War I.

Even earlier, Jews from Portugal and Spain fled the Inquisition and found relative tolerance in Geneva’s Protestant climate. In each case, the city didn’t just provide shelter, it absorbed, evolved, and thrived through the presence of those who arrived in need.

*Geneva was a micro-republic before and had a historical role as a fortified city. Some remaining structures can be found in Old Town.*

This ethic shaped the city’s core: protect the vulnerable, make room for outsiders, and innovate without extravagance.
A tradition of refuge that long predates any institution, and still resonates today..

*Centre d'hebergement collectif de Rigot for immigrants*

THE CITY THAT HOSTS THE WORLD

Today, Geneva isn’t a national capital, but it might as well be the capital of the world:

127 diplomatic missions
Over 750 NGOs
More than 180 nationalities
Home to the UN Office at Geneva, WHO, ILO, WTO, and the International Committee of the Red Cross

Walk through Les Pâquis, and you’ll hear Arabic, Portuguese, Tamil, Spanish, Tigrinya, and French all on the same block. More than 42% of Geneva’s population is foreign-born, the highest in Switzerland.

But this isn’t just diversity for diversity’s sake.

It’s a city designed to host: ideas, negotiations, displaced people, and uncomfortable truths.

And yes, the Internet was born here too. At CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Geneva connects us digitally and diplomatically.

*CERN: European Council for Nuclear Research*

NEUTRALITY AND HUMANITARIAN LAW

In 1859, after witnessing the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, Geneva-born Henry Dunant founded the Red Cross. Soon after, the city hosted the first Geneva Convention, the world’s first binding agreement to protect civilians and the wounded during war.

This gave rise to something revolutionary: Neutrality as a humanitarian tool, not to stay silent, but to make help possible.

*Broken chair Monument, honoring victims of landmines and symbolizing opposition to their use.*

This idea still lives today. The Broken Chair sculpture in front of the UN with three legs standing (one missing), honors victims of landmines and reminds visitors: diplomacy here isn’t abstract. It’s urgent.

*Swiss people are very patrotic, there are flags everywhere reminding u this is not France (hahaha)*

PEACE AND PRIVILEGE: GENEVA'S CONTRADICTIONS

Geneva shelters the world, but not always equally. It’s also one of the most expensive cities in Europe!

*This is the most expensive nectarine ever! and it does not taste like the Colombian ones… I felt robbed :(*

Luxury stores line Rue du Rhône, while across the lake, immigrant families in Les Pâquis wait for asylum decisions or legal aid, it's crazy…

It has hosted the world’s peace talks, and also banked the fortunes of dictators and warlords…

But what makes Geneva honest is that it knows this. It doesn’t pretend to be utopia. Instead, it continues to ask:

How can we hold space for contradictions and still choose to help?

In a world of loud politics, Geneva reminds us that sometimes the most radical thing a city can do is open its doors, hold its contradictions, and keep asking:

How do we build peace, not just on paper, but in practice?

Thank you for reading! Switzerland is a country that really fascinates me, I will be writing more about it.

Natalia Cortes

July 2025

Geneva, Capital of Humanity: Welcoming the World for 5 Centuries

the God of the Christians