Embassy Washington

Like the Swiss
October 30, 2009 - In a machine shop, training and apprenticeships are essential to passing the work onto the next generation. Until now, those ideas were sometimes a tough sell to the outside world but that's changing as the U.S. continues to shed its manufacturing base.  
-- The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

Today, all the states in the world are bound by the four Geneva Conventions. These Conventions protect persons who are not, or are no longer, participating in hostilities: civilians, the wounded, the sick, the shipwrecked, and prisoners of war. August 2009 will mark the 60th anniversary of these landmark international agreements, an anniversary of particular importance for Switzerland. Not only has Switzerland been the depositary of the Geneva Conventions since 1949, but the respect for international humanitarian law as well as the promotion and strengthening of this body of law is one of the key priorities of Swiss foreign policy. For further reading: 
 60 years of the Geneva Conventions