AHCD's 2023 Democracy Week programme comprised events on different levels of democratic governance, including the local one. On the latter, members of the Geneva Graduate Institute community were welcomed at Geneva's Hotel de Ville, which hosts the political institutions of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, on 9 October.

Participants visited the various rooms of the Hotel de Ville as well as the exhibition “Geneva's political institutions,” and heard a presentation from the Chancellery of State on the Swiss political system. This immersive experience provided a deeper understanding of the country's unique democratic system.

The Geneva Chancellery of State specially organised this visit for the Graduate Institute's students and research community. Participants had the unique opportunity to walk in the Salle du Conseil d'Etat, where the seven members of Geneva's government and the Chancellor of State meet every Wednesday and which is hardly ever open to the public. The Salle de l'Alabama was also specially opened for the Graduate Institute's group: this historical room has been used until today for many international negotiations carried out in Geneva as a neutral territory. After the signature of the first Geneva Convention in 1864, it hosted the Arbitral Tribunal, which was provided for by the Washington Treaty in 1871 to settle the dispute on the warship "Alabama" between the United States and Great Britain. 

The visit was followed by an hour interactive debate on Swiss political institutions. Participants engaged in a lively discussion with Marceau Schroter, Political Rights Attaché at the Chancellery of State and author of the book Au Cœur de la Démocratie Suisse (Slatkine, 2022).