GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to Afghanistan 1 May has focused world attention on the country itself, but a two-day conference 2-3 May in Geneva is looking at the ramifications of 30 years of war in Afghanistan for refugees in two neighbouring countries. Some 40 international organizations and representatives from 60 countries are attending the conference, where host UNHCR (UN refugee organization) and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are unveiling their plans for “a joint strategy to find lasting, coherent and unified solutions to the problem of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons”, according to Didier Burkhalter, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), who opened the conference Wednesday.
“Participants will be asked to support programmes in Afghanistan to increase the sustainability of refugee returns. The new strategy also seeks the commitment of the international community to support the host countries of the Afghan refugees. This is the first joint action with humanitarian and development actors and will contribute to the stability of the region,” says Bern in a statement.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s Palais, home to the UN in Geneva, has begun the biggest makeover in its history, and not too soon, says the UN, which recently issued un update on the dire state of the Neo-classic buildings that date to 1929. The League of Nations took up residence in 1936 and then the United Nations in 1946. The UN created a Strategic Heritage Plan for repairs and renovations in 2007, then began to look for funds.
The new director general of the United Nations office in Geneva, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, met in Bern Tuesday 3 April with Didier Burkhalter, Swiss federal councilor and minster for foreign affairs, to sign papers for Switzerland’s contribution to the renovation project. The overall cost of the eight-year project wa estimated at CHF618 million in 2010. Switzerland in 2011 pledged CHF50 million to energy-related measures as part of the plan.
The buildings provide one of the largest conference centres in Europe, with 34 meeting rooms and halls and 2,000 offices.
Some 4,000 UN staff work at the Palais building, which has about 100,000 visitors a year.
The federal government noted in signing the check Tuesday that Geneva’s international role remains a pillar of the country’s foreign policy. Switzerland is home to 25 international organizations, of which 22 are in Geneva, and the city is also home to 7 other international organizations that have fiscal agreements with Switzerland. Another 250 international bodies in Geneva “act as advisors” to the UN, says Bern.
Editor’s note: Le Point in France carries an article with details about the repairs that need to be carried out.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Back in 1993 someone told then-Swiss President Adolf Ogi that a group photo could do wonders for the popularity of the ruling seven-member Federal Council, Switzerland’s equivalent of a cabinet. And since then the ruling seven plus the chancellor, who oversees the administrative side of the government, have lined up every year for a photo. The 2011 version has a special look: for the first time in Swiss history, there are more women as councillors than men.
The seven members of the council are elected for four years and the one-year job of president rotates among them. Micheline Calmy-Rey, Socialist, is the 2011 president of the Swiss Confederation.
Left to right: Johann Schneider-Ammann, Didier Burkhalter, Doris Leuthard, Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, lEveline Widmer-Schlumpf (vice-president), Ueli Maurer, Simonetta Sommaruga, Chancellor Corina Casanova
Swiss Federal Council (cabinet), 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s cabinet, the seven-member Swiss Federal Council, which governs as a body of equals, has published its official photo for 2010. Left to right: Didier Burkhalter, the chancellor for the Swiss Confederation Corina Casanova, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Ueli Maurer, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss President Doris Leuthard, Vice-president Moritz Leuenberger. The presidency is a one-year rotating position, while the chancellor’s job is to oversee the smooth functioning of the administrative side of the government.
Didier Burkhalter, Neuchatel, new Swiss cabinet member
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Didier Burkhalter, 49, a Radical party (centre-right) politician from Neuchatel, was elected by the Swiss parliament to the country’s seven-member Federal Council (cabinet) with 129 votes against 106 for the other candidate, Urs Schwaller, PDC (also centre), on the fourth round of voting. He succeeds Pascal Couchepin, from canton Valais, who is retiring 1 November. Burkhalter’s election means his party will retain its seat on the council and the balance remains unchanged in the power-sharing Swiss government. The language balance remains intact as well, with one French-speaking canton representative replaced by another.
Details: Swissinfo and on radio, WRS. Swiss French media: Le Temps, Tribune de Geneve/24 Heures, TSR
Background story, GenevaLunch
