When representatives at the UN aren\u2019t engaged at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, they\u2019re relaxing at their very own swimming club. Monocle grabbed a towel and checked out this oasis of calm conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese windsurfers belong to Unicef, this kayak is the ilo\u2019s and all these boats belong to UN-affiliated functionaries,\u201d says Daniel Benazera, the burnished chairman of the UN Club de la Plage, as he shows Monocle around the organisation\u2019s multilateral swimming club on the banks of Lake Geneva. \u201cWe try and keep this place for sportif,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, we have a raft out in the lake to swim to, boats and pedalos \u2013 those are free for members. And, to relax, there\u2019s the solarium \u2013 that\u2019s the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
This verdant annex of the Palais des Nations is open to the UN, all its affiliated bodies, visiting delegates, every permanent diplomatic mission in town and even Cern (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics), whose staff down tools from working on the Large Hadron Collider and come to the club for a dip at lunchtime. \u201cAmbassadors come and go,\u201d says the club\u2019s secretary, Janet Weiler, who oversees the members list. \u201cIt is always a pleasure to meet them. We have a party with champagne to open the season and musical concerts, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is late summer when Monocle swings by and the club is full of human rights lawyers, administrative staff and UN personnel, who bask like seals on the wooden decking. \u201cI just cycled down from the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] to swim and lunch,\u201d says Victoria Thatcher, sitting on a grassy knoll with two co-workers. \u201cIt\u2019s easy: it\u2019s just down the hill and through the botanical gardens and then it\u2019s like a holiday \u2013 just for one hour, of course. There are so many people in Geneva doing stressful, difficult work that the lake is important for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The security here is tight; at the entrance, a coterie of stern guards grill any unfamiliar faces for their credentials. However, the club\u2019s simple wooden changing block, ivy-covered moorings and relaxed atmosphere are a far cry from the polished d\u00e9cor and white-gloved service elsewhere in the area.<\/p>\n
UN Club de la Plage is endearingly unkempt. That\u2019s partly by design and partly because the UN keeps the club at arm\u2019s length; it is completely self-funded. Up the hill in her wood-panelled office at UN Office at Geneva, Caroline Lepeu, head of central support service \u2013 and a long-standing club member \u2013 insists there is no UN mandate for a beach. \u201cThe piece of land was bought by the League of Nations in 1937 and transferred to the UN in 1947,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has never been a place for international jet-set.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the beach club plays an important role for its dedicated members. It is a key part of what makes Geneva such an effective location: diplomacy and negotiations don\u2019t just happen in airless meeting rooms. As Monocle leaves, a group of young UN workers make their way through the minutes of a meeting on the breezy terrace while retired UN functionaries relax over lunch; who would swap a hot office for that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When representatives at the UN aren\u2019t engaged at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, they\u2019re relaxing at their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,2117,3381,17982,2746],"class_list":["post-125534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-lake-geneva","tag-society","tag-swimming","tag-united-nations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117209243739199647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}