Switzerland and Geneva hosted numerous international meetings and dignitaries this week
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “International Geneva”, as the city likes to profile itself when talking about the UN and other international organizations, has had a more than usually busy week.
Highlights:
Wednesday 15 June: The UN Human Rights Commission looked at allegations of human rights abuses in Cote d’Ivoire and the current situation there, with a large number of countries speaking. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that in the six months since the UN set up a hotline for human rights abuses in December more than 12,000 calls have been received. UNHRC unofficial report with speakers’ summaries. The UNHRC also passed a statement calling on Syria to give the UN high commissioner access to the country.
Thursday 16 June: The International Labour Organization at its centenary annual Conference, adopted a set of international standards to improve “the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide”. The standards have been two years in the making and, for the first time, take ILO standards into the informal economy. Text of the new Convention
The two week conference has seen a stream of dignitaries and has included presentations by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The UNHRC adopted a new set of guiding principles on business and human rights drawn up by Professor John Ruggie of Harvard. It covers state but also corporate responsibilities and gives guidelines for meeting them in several areas including the rights of indigenous peoples, women, national or ethnic groups, religious and linguistic minorities, children, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers and their families as well as business adherence to international law in situations of armed conflict.
Friday 17 June: the UN staff magazine, UN Special, carries a new feature on the nine-storey multi-coloured glass front building on the Rue de France that will be completed in November.
At the end of last week the World Trade Organization noted that it had submitted to the G20 an inter-agency report by 10 UN agencies on managing food prices, to the G20, at its request, “Options for G20 consideration on how to better mitigate and manage the risks associated with the price volatility of food and other agriculture commodities, without distorting market behaviour, ultimately to protect the most vulnerable”.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss bank UBS holds a regular Investors Day Tuesday 17 November in Zurich and speculation is running high among media and analysts about what it will say to them. The plan to move the bank back to profitability is undoubtedly high on the list, with Bloomberg suggesting that Oswald Gruebel, chairman, “will probably list hiring in fixed-income as a key element in his turnaround plan,” because the bank is likely to count on its investment bank’s trading of debt securities to pull it out of debt. The Wall Street Journal says investors will be watching Robert McCann, new head of the US wealth management unit, for signs of what the bank plans to do there, and whether Gruebel intends to sell off the unit at some point.
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Update 23:35 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland is in the process of setting up a tax hotline, primarily for US citizens, to deal with an expected influx of questions once the US and Switzerland both sign the new double taxation agreement, GenevaLunch has been told by a government official. The date for the hotline to open is not yet set, nor are further details available yet.
The Swiss cabinet 11 September gave a green light to two ministries, foreign affairs and finance, to sign the agreement. They are currently working on details, the official says, and while no one can yet say when exactly the agreement will be signed, he would not exclude that this could be in the very near future. [Ed. note: a Swiss Bankers Association senior official said at a meeting in Geneva Tuesday evening that Switzerland is expected to sign the agreement tomoorw, 23 September].
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Canton Vaud, alarmed by the growing number of citizens whose household budgets are deteriorating badly, is setting up a debt hotline for people drowning in debt.
