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Following up on last year's "International Process on Global Conter-Terrorism Cooperation", Switzerland together with Costa Rica, Japan, Norway, Austria, Slovakia and Turkey, in close cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), initiates a discussion platform for national high-level counter-terrorism experts. The "International Workshop of National Counter-Terrorism Focal Points", held in Vienna, Austria, on 12 and 13 Oct 2009, will address issues of improved coordination in the fight against terrorism, including human rights protection aspects and the elimination of the root causes of terrorism. More than 100 UN member states and more than 30 international and regional organisations and institutions are participating.
- Concluding remarks (32 Kb, pdf)
The manifesto “Global Economic Ethic – Consequences for Global Businesses” was launched at a symposium at the United Nations. The text proposes a set of universally acceptable values to form an ethical foundation for doing business and participating in the economy worldwide. Speakers noted that a globalized economy poses new challenges for intercultural exchange in the business world and that an absence of ethical common ground is a root cause of the recent and current economic crisis. Keynote speakers included Swiss-German theologian Hans Küng, Earth Institute director Jeffrey Sachs,. Josef Wieland of University of Konstanz/Germany and Klaus Leisinger of Novartis Foundation. The symposium was convened by the UN Global Compact, the Global Ethic Foundation, the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Swiss Mission at the United Nations. 
Press release
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, Switzerland organized a ministerial meeting at the United Nations, with Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, ICRC-president Jakob Kellenberger and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey giving keynote addresses.. Over 100 member states, about 40 represented on the ministerial level, debated the insufficient implementation of the Geneva Conventions and ways to strengthen adherence to international humanitarian law. An experts’meeting scheduled for November in Geneva will deepen the debate. Micheline Calmy-Rey declared Switzerland ready to hold further meetings of this kind. full coverage on UN Webcast archive
Switzerland presented its third report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Swiss delegation, led by Ambassador Marion Weichelt, spent a full day before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the experts body tasked with following up on the obligations states ratifying the convention incur. The Committee asked a good number of questions, a lot of them focusing on the particularities of Swiss federalis, the country's decentralized governmental structure. CEDAW obliges states parties to periodically report to the Committee which in turn issues recommendations to the reporting government. Ambassador Weichelt’s statement
“Rundschau” political affairs magazine of Schweizer Fernsehen (German-speaking Swiss Television) airs a series of broadcasts on Swiss representations abroad. The first installment takes a look at the Swiss Mission to the United Nations.
Ambassador Peter Maurer, Permanent Representative of Switzerland, was elected chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission’s country configuration on Burundi. Created in 2005, the Peacebuilding Commission was created in 2005 to particularly focus on countries in the critical phase between ending an armed conflict and resuming peaceful social and economic development. Almost half of all peace processes experience a relapse into violence in the first five years after a peace agreement.
“Our expectations are met”, said Martin Dahinden, director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and head of the Swiss delegation on the outcome of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its impact on Development. The conference provided a platform for the voices of the South, he said: “The UN plays an important role”. Martin Dahinden is convinced that the outcome of the conference will influence the operations of UN funds and programs as well as the ongoing reform of the Bretton Woods system. He noted with particular satisfaction that the outcome document makes a reference to the concept of corporate social responsibility as promoted in the UN Global Compact and its 10 principles.
Swiss statement in the conference
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Ambassador Peter Maurer, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN, was elected by the General Assembly as chairman of the Fifth Committee for the 64th session, starting in September. The Fifth Committee deals with budget matters. "This is a great honor for my country and myself," said Ambassador Maurer."In times of great fiscal uncertainty, the Fifth Committee will take up two issues of particular importance during the upcoming session - one being the Programme Budget for the Biennium 2010-2011, and the other a new scale of assessment on which Member States' contributions will be based in the next three years. I am looking.forward to the challenge.”
Supported by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the EastWest Institute (EWI) has conducted a joint threat assessment by US and Russian experts of Iran’s nuclear and missile potential – the first of its kind. The findings were presented at the Swiss Permanent Mission to representatives of United Nations member states. Speakers included EWI-Vice President Pal Sidhu, Prof. Theodore A. Postol of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Leonid Ryabikhin, Executive Secretary of the Committee of Scientists for Global Security and Arms Control, Moscow, and Prof. Gary Sick of Columbia University.
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The UN Partnership Office, the Swiss Mission to the UN and Nestlé, the Swiss-based global food company, jointly sponsored a two-day forum on “creating shared value; business and development”. Focusing on water supply, rural development and food production, experts from around the world discussed ways to align the interests of private enterprise with the UN’s goals of sustainable development. Both Peter Maurer, the Swiss Permanent Representative to the UN, and Peter Brabeck, Nestlé’s chairman of the board, referred to the current worldwide economic crisis and lessons to be learned. “In order to have long-term business success you have to simultaneously create value for shareholders and for the public”, said Peter Brabeck. “This symposium is about partnerships between actors with distinct roles and responsibilities”, said Ambassador Peter Maurer. “It is not about philanthropy, but about the business case for responsible corporate behavior and it is about society’s and the public sector’s interest to see responsible business strive”. At the forum, Nestlé among other initiatives announced a 500000-CHF-prize awarded every two years to individuals, NGOs, or small enterprises offering innovative solutions to nutritional deficiencies, access to clean water, or progress in rural development. creatingsharedvalue.org
National Councillor Yvonne Gilli (Green Party, St. Gallen) participated as the Swiss representative of a delegation of European Parliamentarians which followed this week's session of the Commission on Population and Development. Mrs. Gilli presides the "Cairo-Plus" group in the Swiss Parliament, an all-party grouping of parliamentarians of both houses with a particular interest in sexual and reproductive health issues. She is also a member of the European Parliamentary Forum associating members of national European parliaments for joint action on sexual and reproductive health issues.
A new website on legal aspects of armed conflicts was presented to the UN community in New York. The site, a research project of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, is a one-stop source for information on international and national laws pertaining to armed conflicts in the world. It assembles the international rules applicable in conflict situations, offers assessments on the legal nature of armed violence in specific cases and provides academic analysis of national laws concerning the implementation of international commitments. 80 country profiles are online already. Eventually, all countries shall be covered. The “Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project” (RULAC) is supported by the Swiss government. RULAC
Agenda for human rights
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An hour-long documentary on "the United Nations confronting the challenges of the 21st century" was shown for the first time in the Dag Hammarsjöld Auditorium at the United Nations. "Planet UN", a French-Swiss coproduction by filmmaker Romuald Sciora, provides an assessment of the UN's aspirations, limitations, tasks and tools. Along three thematic areas - peacekeeping, development and human rights - UN diplomats, representatives of member states and foreign policy experts explain what the United Nations intends to achieve and how it goes about its goals. "This is not just a movie, but a contribution to accountability", said Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer, in reference to the Charter's words that the organization is to act on behalf of "the peoples of the United Nations". Recalling that Switzerland's adhesion was put before a popular vote, Ambassador Maurer said: "Two of the key messages that convinced the Swiss to join the UN seem to have inspired the film-makers as well: the firm belief that confronted with global challenges a global platform to meet, talk and respond was in the interest of all and the conviction that despite all its imperfections, the UN is a force for the good and in need of support. This remains an adequate assessment of the UN’s destiny today: imperfect but unavoidable, heavily contested and criticized but in even bigger demand."
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Last modification: 28.10.2009