All proceeds from the day will go to a Geneva charity 'Paidos', which helps children and adolescents in difficult situations or with behavioural problems.

'We are also organising this event in order to send a strong signal that we are part of the Geneva community, a community to which we have been inextricably linked for 60 years,' Lamy added.

The WTO is housed in a grand, 83-year-old lakeside building known as the William Rapard Centre, but few other than Geneva-based diplomats, journalists and government ministers visit it regularly.

'With one of the most beautiful views in the city, the site embodied peace and stability,' says a WTO leaflet.

But international nongovernment campaigners have long slammed the sprawling building as a place where trade deals are struck in secrecy in meetings that are closed to journalists.

In 1999, the left-wing Third World Network described the WTO as 'probably the most non-transparent of international organisations.'

The WTO said Monday activities for children on the open day will include a drawing contest on the theme 'Draw me globalisation' and/or 'Draw me the WTO.'