Portail des Nations

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Portail des Nations

Bienvenue au Portail des Nations, futur Centre des visiteurs de l'ONU Genève

Alors que notre monde affronte des conflits persistants, des crises environnementales, des avancées technologiques vertigineuses et une profonde remise en question de l’ordre multilatéral, une question devient essentielle : comment les nations coopèrent-elles pour relever les défis communs ? Le Portail des Nations a pour ambition de rendre le multilatéralisme accessible à tous, en offrant un lieu d’apprentissage ouvert à tous.

24/08/2026

The last day of Dag Hammarskjöld

"The United Nations was not created to bring us to heaven, but to save us from hell." Those are Dag Hammarskjöld's words, the UN's second Secretary-General.
Hammarskjöld lived that line to the end. As Congo stepped into independence, he pushed to guide the process peacefully.

It didn't go as planned.

Flying from Kinshasa to Ndola, his plane went down on the night of 17–18 September 1961. He and fourteen others never made it out.

Over six decades later, the full truth is still locked away, investigations continue, archives stay classified, and states still withhold "specific and crucial" information. Hammarskjöld wanted to save the world from hell. His own story remains an unsolved one.

That same conviction, that we go further together, is what Together, the new immersive experience at the Portail des Nations, invites visitors to rediscover today.

Discover the story of the last days of Dag Hammarskjöld with the testimony of his last assistant, Franco-Swiss Monique Rime : https://genevemonde.ch/galleries/monique-rime-itineraire-d-une-enfant-de-l-onu

This photo (copyright United Nations) is the last one officially taken of Dag Hammarskjöld and one of his closest collaborators Vladimir Fabry.

Plan your visit : www.portaildesnations.ch

18/08/2026

Eight years ago today, the world lost Kofi Annan. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations, he spent his life building bridges between people and nations.

Here at Portail des Nations, his legacy lives on. A bronze bust of Kofi Annan and his Nobel Peace Prize are on display for every visitor who walks through our doors.

He believed we all belong to one human race, whatever our differences. That belief is at the heart of everything we do.

Today, we remember him.

18/08/2026

Long before the word multilateralism entered common use, one man was already proving that nations could unite around a shared sense of humanity.

Fridtjof Nansen, explorer, scientist and diplomat, became one of the earliest architects of international cooperation as we know it today. As the first League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, he created the Nansen passport, a document that gave hundreds of thousands of stateless people the right to travel, work and simply exist within a system built to recognize them. At a time when the world had just emerged from war and borders were being redrawn, Nansen showed that institutions could be built not around power alone but around dignity and protection for the individual.

His legacy reminds us that multilateralism was never an abstract idea. It was, and remains, a practical answer to very human problems: displacement, exclusion and the need for shared responsibility across borders. Nearly a century later, the questions Nansen faced still echo through the halls of international Geneva, where his pioneering work helped lay the foundation for what would become UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Discover his story in our latest carousel, part of our series exploring the men and women who shaped multilateralism as we know it today.

Together Includes You.

14/08/2026

In this short video, Augusto Gorter, our Content and Marketing Manager, gives us a quick glimpse of the timeline at the heart of the Portail des Nations, tracing the story of multilateralism from its earliest roots to today.

But what makes this space special is not only what is written on the wall. It is what happens in front of it. This is where our team meets visitors face to face, and where a historical narrative turns into a real human exchange.

That is the essence of Together, history made tangible, and multilateralism made personal.

Together Includes You.

13/08/2026

🎬 Behind the scenes: how to tell the story of multilateralism without ever naming it

The challenge given to Downtown Studio was simple to state, difficult to meet: create an immersive experience built around the word multilateralism.

"It's not a word we use often as creatives," admits Olivier Pictet, founder of Downtown Studio. But he draws a direct parallel with his own daily work: to him, multilateralism is simply the strength of the collective (the same principle that drives any creative team).

That left the real question: how do you turn an abstract concept into an emotion? Not explain it but make it come alive, through the journey "Together" would offer to visitors.

The ambition went beyond pedagogy. The goal was to convey the ideal, the responsibilities, and the hopes this word has always carried.

One conviction guided the entire creative process: peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of dialogue.

That conviction and this creative process gave birth to "Together," the Portail des Nations' immersive experience. 🎟️

👉 Book your visit: https://www.portaildesnations.ch/

11/08/2026

Eleanor Roosevelt was not a career diplomat. She built her influence through persistence, through a genuine belief that ordinary citizens have a stake in international affairs, and through the conviction that dialogue across differences is always worth the effort, even when it feels slow or fragile.

That belief is exactly what continues to animate the multilateral institutions gathered in Geneva today. It is the same belief that shapes what we try to offer with our immersive experience at the Portail des Nations. Multilateralism is not an abstract system reserved for experts. It is a human project, built one voice at a time.

A rare archive brings that voice back to life. In this recording produced in the RTS Geneva studios for their partners at NBC Radio, Eleanor Roosevelt reflects on the people she met in Geneva, and on why they mattered to her.

Listen to the recording: https://genevemonde.ch/documents/01k81808787sxa4xkt8nv4skgr

Book your ticket for (link in bio)

11/08/2026

What we hear from young visitors leaving Together reminds us exactly why this project exists.

One hour is enough to turn an abstract idea of multilateralism into a lived understanding of the realities the United Nations faces every day in Geneva. In this short video, several visitors share their impressions right after stepping out of the experience.

What stands out most is inspiration. Younger generations leave with a clearer, more human picture of what international cooperation actually means, and a renewed curiosity to engage with it, or even contribute to it one day.

This is exactly what Together is about, making something that often feels distant feel tangible, and giving everyone a real picture of the world through the eyes of those who shape it every day.

09/08/2026

🪶 In 1923, an Iroquois chief travelled to Geneva to plead his people's cause before the League of Nations. A century later, his story still resonates.

His name was Levi General, though he was known by his title, Deskaheh, hereditary chief of the Six Nations reserve in Ontario. Facing mounting pressure from Canada on his people — conscription, land dispossession, challenges to their self-governance — he made a bold choice: cross the Atlantic to bring the Six Nations' voice to the heart of the newly born world diplomacy.

In Geneva, he was welcomed warmly. Halls filled to hear him speak. His petition, "The Red Man's Appeal for Justice," was addressed to the League's very first Secretary-General, calling for recognition of the Six Nations as "the oldest League of Nations."

But the official answer was a refusal: his cause was deemed an "internal affair" of Canada, and the League's Council chose not to hear him. Deskaheh never made it home alive.

His fight was not in vain, though. It opened a crack in the wall — a slow, decades-long process that would eventually push the international community to recognise Indigenous peoples as subjects of rights, leading to the first international convention on indigenous and tribal populations, and later to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, this story is a reminder of something essential: multilateralism was never built in official corridors alone. It was also built by those who insisted on claiming their place in it — sometimes at the cost of their lives.

This living memory of international Geneva — its progress, but also its silences and failures — is exactly what the Portail des Nations brings to life, to better understand what "changing the world" truly means.

Photo (c) Bibliothèque de Genève

🎟️ Discover "Together," the Portail des Nations' immersive experience: https://www.portaildesnations.ch
Book your visit: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/portaildesnations/?full-items=yes

05/08/2026

Getting ready to experience Together? 🌍 Here's a quick rundown before you head to Portail des Nations.

Swipe through for opening hours, ticket details, how long to set aside, and a sneak peek at what awaits you inside this immersive hour that could change how you see the world.

Come solo, bring a friend, or make it a family outing, just make sure you're ready to dive in. ✨

🎟️ Get your tickets: https://www.portaildesnations.ch/

03/08/2026

🌍 The race to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations is now underway.

With António Guterres' second term ending on 31 December 2026, the UN Security Council held its first informal "straw poll" on 30 July 2026, providing an initial snapshot of where the candidates stand. While the vote is confidential and non-binding, it offers the first indication of support among the Council's 15 members.

The seven candidates

🇦🇷 Rafael Grossi (Argentina)
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ⚛️

🇨🇱 Michelle Bachelet (Chile)
Former President of Chile and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ⚖️

🇨🇷 Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica)
Secretary-General of UNCTAD and former Vice President of Costa Rica 📈

🇪🇨 María Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador)
Former President of the UN General Assembly 🏛️

🇬🇾 Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana)
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs 🤝

🇸🇳 Macky Sall (Senegal)
Former President of Senegal 🌍

🇺🇬 Olara Otunnu (Uganda)
Former UN Under-Secretary-General and former Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict 🕊️

First straw poll: who is leading? 📊

According to diplomatic sources:

🥇 Rebeca Grynspan emerged as the frontrunner with 10 "Encourage" votes.

She was followed by:
🥈 🇬🇾 Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett: 9 "Encourage" votes

🥉 🇦🇷 Rafael Grossi: 7 "Encourage" votes

The remaining candidates received more limited support in this first round.

What's next?

📅 August to September (possibly October) 2026

Additional informal straw polls will gradually narrow the field and help build consensus among Security Council members.

📅 Final straw polls with coloured ballots

The five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) will cast distinguishable ballots, allowing potential vetoes to become visible. This is often the decisive stage of the selection process.

📅 Autumn 2026
The Security Council is expected to recommend one candidate to the UN General Assembly.

📅 Late 2026
The General Assembly will formally appoint the next UN Secretary-General.

📅 1 January 2027
The new Secretary-General officially takes office.

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