The Broken Chair

What do Princess Diana and the monument in this picture have in common?

The Broken Chair stands on the Place des Nations in Geneva, opposite the Palais des Nations, home of the United Nations Office at Geneva. Look closely and you will see that one of its legs is shattered. The monument was raised as a gesture of solidarity and as an appeal to States to join the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines (1997). Every year thousands of people around the world, most of them children, lose limbs or are killed by this indiscriminate weapon.

The Ottawa Convention is one of the rare treaties that civil society both initiated and carried through to adoption. The powerful international campaign built by non-governmental organisations owed much of its support and popularity to Princess Diana. Sadly, she did not live to see the Convention enter into force.

Today more than 160 States are party to the Convention, among them the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belarus and Ukraine. Unfortunately, the largest producers of anti-personnel mines — Russia, the United States and China — still remain outside it.

The Place des Nations and the district around it are among my favourite places in Geneva, and for deeply personal reasons: this is where the International Labour Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organisations I have worked with or studied at are to be found. The Palais des Nations itself is surrounded by a beautiful park of ancient plane trees and strutting peacocks. If you find yourself in Geneva, take the number 8 bus from Gare Cornavin to the Nations stop. It is not far — Geneva is not a large city — and this is one district you really should not miss.