US Mission Geneva

The world may finally be on its way toward a legally binding treaty that includes all major greenhouse gas emitters and compensates nations most vulnerable to climate change.

Richard Holbrooke served the country he loved for nearly half a century, representing the United States in far-flung war-zones and high-level peace talks, always with distinctive brilliance and unmatched determination. He was one of a kind — a true statesman — and that makes his passing all the more painful. From his early days in Vietnam to his historic role bringing peace to the Balkans to his last mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard helped shape our history, manage our perilous present, and secure our future.

Today United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel found in favor of the United States in a dispute brought by China challenging the imposition of additional duties on imports of Chinese tires under the transitional safeguard mechanism included in China’s Protocol of Accession to the WTO.

This will be the second time in history that a Nobel Peace Prize recipient has been barred from either attending the event in person or sending a personal representative to accept the prize on his or her behalf. The last time no one was present to accept the Nobel Peace Prize was in 1935.

Noting that President Obama and the other TPP Leaders instructed them to conclude the negotiations as swiftly as possible, the negotiators pressed ahead in the 24 negotiating groups. The teams advanced their work to develop the legal texts in each area that will detail the rights and obligations each country will assume, covering the full scope of commercial and trade-related issues between the countries.

Today I am pleased to announce that we secured the Cancun Agreements, a set of balanced international decisions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) which represent meaningful progress in our global response to climate change.

Last year in Copenhagen, President Obama joined with leaders and others representing countries from around the world to find a formula that could bridge a wide variety of interests and perspectives and forge a new path on climate change – one on which all Parties would embark together.

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), which took effect in 1975, originally was designed to ban the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons by nation states.

Welcome, everybody, and happy Human Rights Day. Sixty-two years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which established, really, for the first time, the universality of human rights – every human being entitled to rights because of their humanity.