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Geneva is the symbol of a continuing placing between the possible and the desirable. To tend towards a pacified world is its objective. Before reaching this objective, would it be necessary to legislate the rules of warfare, in other words: to "humanize" warfare? The fact that the seat of oldest and most important humanitarian organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, is located at avenue de la paix (Peace Street), is a symbol and a response regarding the attempt to conciliate between two complementary policies: searching for peace, and the regulation/humanization of armed conflicts. The article studies two contradictory ideas, constructed in parallel starting at the age of Enlightenment: 1) pacification through law and the creation of international organizations, and 2) humanization of the war, and examines their development around the two world wars, with the construction of the United Nations and its strategic center in Geneva, the base of numerous international conferences relating to disarmament and the ending of conflicts. As for humanitarian actions, they have become a means of peace strategy with increasing integration into Chapter VII of the UN Chart. Symbolically, Geneva is the place where the focus on these two ideals is of its highest level; peace and humanitarian action, sometimes contradictory, sometimes complementary, the balance of which at last seems to tend toward the latter, thus given reason to Henry Dunant. O. van Zijl

Geneva is the living proof of openness toward the world, and the spirit of Geneva often perceived as a hope for humanity. Reinforcement of international humanitarian action is a Swiss priority, and at the base of an analysis on the future of Geneva, demanded by the Swiss government in 2006 of l'Institute Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (IUHEI = Academic Institute of Higher International Studies). The results of this analysis: renewed efforts to defend and promote the aspect of Geneva's international humanitarian actions, the world capital of human engagement, in particular through an annual forum on humanity that will receive new NGO's in order to stimulate actions in civil society and the reinforce Geneva as a place of dialogue, meeting-point, and negotiations. Furthermore, formal training and effectiveness of humanitarian actors will be promoted, as well as academic excellence and the development and promotion of international law. The article expresses the need for an increase in efforts in risk prevention regarding natural and technological disasters, multiplied by 3 and 5 respectively since 1985, and a strengthening of bonds between prevention, preparation, and the response to catastrophes. Adapted from the source document.