GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva is lending legs 4 April to the UN’s international day for landmine action: around the world, for the fourth such day, people are rolling up one pants leg to show solidarity with efforts to ban landmines and rid the world of those already planted.
The Swiss federal government in Bern today published its strategy for landmine action for the 2012-2015 period, noting that Switzerland spends CHF16 million a year supporting the
“Since the 1990s, Switzerland has been actively campaigning for the implementation of international instruments to prohibit these weapons. The current strategy is its third in succession, and it not only outlines Switzerland’s commitment, but also presents the results that have been achieved to date. It is partly thanks to Switzerland’s support that countries such as Albania or Burundi have been cleared of landmines. Switzerland has made a significant contribution to improving the living circumstances of the affected populations in various regions and countries, including Colombia, Niger, Laos, Libya, the Horn of Africa, and South-East Europe.
“Each year around 16 million Swiss francs are spent on supporting the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), for the implementation of specific projects in affected countries and the secondment of demining experts.”
The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Convention, was adopted in Oslo in 1997 and opened for signature in Ottawa the same year. It entered into force on 1 March 1999. To date 159 States are parties to the Convention with 155 of them no longer holding stocks of anti-personnel mines. Over 44.5 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed by the States Parties.
Of the 50 States that at one time manufactured anti-personnel mines, 34 are now bound by the Convention’s ban on production. Most other States have put in place moratoria on production and / or transfers of mines.
Demining has resulted in millions of square metres of once dangerous land being released for normal human activity. On 1 January 2012, Guinea Bissau became the 20th State Party to declare that it had complied with its Convention obligations to clear all areas containing anti-personnel mines.
Mine Action Strategy of the Swiss Confederation 2012 – 2015 (pdf)
Ruth Dreifuss, former Swiss president, who grew up in the Secheron district in Geneva, attended a December 2008 presentation on the development of the international Geneva project, near the WTO.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The proposed extension to the World Trade Organization’s building at Centre William Rappard will be decided this Sunday 27 September by the city of Geneva’s voters. The vote is a strictly municipal affair, and the outcome is not binding on the canton, which has the final say on city planning decisions. But this vote is being seen as a test of the city’s commitment to the concept of Genève internationale, host to the European headquarters of the UN and to more than 30 specialized UN organizations, as well as to a large number of non-governemental organizations (NGOs).
A strong “no” vote by the citizens of Geneva would seriously weaken that commitment. Pierre Vanek, leader of the project’s opponents, points out in an interview published in Le Temps that the canton can ignore the result of a refusal, but “people wouldn’t understand why it was going against a popular vote.”
The cantonal authorities approved the building extension because the WTO urgently needs the extra space.
