Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern!

Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Tuesday.

Keystone / Dumitru Doru

In the news:  Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, today announced an increase of CHF2 million ($2.15 million) in emergency humanitarian aid during a visit to Moldova. 

• He also paid tribute to Moldova’s solidarity with neighbouring Ukraine. “As a long-standing partner, Switzerland will continue to provide support to Moldova and Ukraine,” Cassis tweetedExternal link, having met Moldovan President Maia Sandu (pictured with Cassis) in the capital Chisinau.
• The Swiss industrial sector, particularly chemical, engineering and food production companies, are already feeling the effects of rising raw material costs and logistical logjams caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The tourism industry, which has already been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, is also feeling the pinch – and not just because fewer Russians are visiting the Alps. “Some tourism providers also report that some American and Asian travellers are avoiding Europe due to the war,” says the Swiss Business Federation, economiesuisse.
• The organisers of the 22nd Swiss Gourmet Week have chosen BaselExternal link as the “Gourmet Capital of Switzerland 2022”. Numerous events in Basel will introduce the public to tasty and fair-trade fare from April to October, but especially during the actual Gourmet Week of September 15-25.

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The head of the Swiss government’s Covid taskforce believes people will choose to wear masks more often in winter from now on.

Since the most recent lifting of restrictions, the data showed that older people were increasingly being infected with the virus again, Tanja Stadler (pictured) said in an interviewExternal link with Tamedia newspapers today. But hospital admissions have remained constant, she said.

“Immunity to severe courses of disease does not seem to have decreased markedly in this group. But clearly, we have to be very vigilant. If this changes, it’s in everyone’s interest that these people can get a booster vaccination quickly,” she said.

Stadler said it would be crucial to plan this second booster vaccination early and effectively. “We need to know in summer who is going to be offered the vaccination so that the vaccination campaign can then be rolled out accordingly. These people should be able to be vaccinated in September so that we’re definitely ready when [Covid cases start increasing again] in autumn.”

She said she was very much in favour of making the vaccination available to everyone who wanted it, including younger people.

“The situation is comparable to the flu vaccination,” she said. “What’s more, the recent development of the coronavirus has shown how well the vaccination works. It’s only thanks to [the vaccination] that the Swiss health system hasn’t been overburdened.”

When asked how society would be different after the pandemic, she pointed to the wearing of masks. “In the past, none of us, except in hospital, ever wore a mask. That’s going to change. We’re much more aware that we can protect ourselves with masks. I’m convinced that we’ll see masks much more often in winter. That will remain – not as an obligation, simply as an additional means of protecting oneself.”

swissinfo.ch

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit China, but can she get an accurate picture of the situation? In the latest Inside Geneva podcast, published today, host Imogen Foulkes is joined by experts on China and human rights.

“Michelle Bachelet will be the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to set foot in China in 17 years,” says Sophie Richardson, China director at NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).

But will it be safe for witnesses and victims of rights abuses to talk to her? Human rights groups accuse Beijing of having interned over a million Uyghurs in so-called “re-education camps” in Xinjiang.

“China has been cited by the Secretary General himself as engaging in a pattern of reprisals against those who engaged with the UN previously,” says Phil Lynch, director of NGO International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).

Is there a risk of Bachelet’s visit being instrumentalised by Chinese authorities?

“Given that we cannot expect her to carry out any serious investigation of the reality of human rights in China, what is it that she’s actually going for?” asks Nick Cumming-Bruce, a New York Times contributor in Geneva.