Swiss Abroad

Testing times ahead for UN rights body

This content was published on May 10, 2006 Adrien-Claude Zoller, president of Geneva for Human Rights, says he hopes Switzerland maintains its strong commitment to the new body and ensures the voices of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are heard. Switzerland, elected alongside 46 other countries in New York on Tuesday, now faces the task of helping to thrash out how the council will operate.…

Swiss Politics

Switzerland elected to new UN human rights body

This content was published on May 10, 2006 The council, which stems from a Swiss initiative, is to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission and will meet for the first time at its seat in Geneva next month. Switzerland was chosen in the first ballot on Tuesday and won 140 out of 191 votes. Reacting to the news on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Micheline…

Swiss Politics

No constitutional safeguard for banking secrecy

This content was published on May 9, 2006 Most parliamentarians took the view that such protection for banking secrecy was no longer necessary since the signing of a relevant treaty with the European Union. The proposal, put forward by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, gained a good deal of currency in parliament in December 2003 when Switzerland was under heavy EU pressure to…

Swiss Politics

Christian Democrats go for woman candidate

This content was published on May 9, 2006 Parliament is due to meet mid-June to elect a new representative of the centre-right party in the seven-member government. The 43-year-old Leuthard said on Tuesday she was ready to enter the race for the Christian Democrat seat in cabinet. It is widely believed that her election to the government is a done deal, since she…

Swiss Politics

Switzerland and the EU

This content was published on May 9, 2006

Swiss hope to land seat on new UN rights body

This content was published on May 9, 2006 Swiss diplomats have spent the past month vigorously campaigning for a seat among UN members, who will choose from 64 countries. “Nothing is guaranteed, but I am relatively optimistic,” senior Swiss diplomat Ulrich Lehner told swissinfo. “Switzerland has a strong case to put to the 191 members of the General Assembly.” “We represent diversity compared…

Swiss Politics

War victims in Ivory Coast neglected

This content was published on May 8, 2006 But the UN representative for the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who is due to meet international donors in Geneva on Tuesday, is optimistic that a solution to the crisis can be found. Kälin recently spent seven days in the West African state, which has been divided between the rebel-held north and government-controlled…

Swiss Politics

“Disagreements should not hamper cooperation”

This content was published on May 6, 2006 Willeford is returning to her native Texas on Saturday to head the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries. A close family friend of the Bush family, the non-career diplomat was posted to the Swiss capital in 2003. Her career until then had been in education and community work. She is returning to Texas, where she…

Swiss Politics

Army exercise

This content was published on May 6, 2006 Operation Zeus is underway in French-speaking Switzerland. Its mission is to stabilise, pacify, and protect a region under threat. (Julie Hunt, swssinfo.ch)

Swiss stick to their guns in tax dispute with EU

This content was published on May 5, 2006 Ambassador Bernhard Marfurt, head of the Swiss mission in Brussels, told swissinfo that the EU’s demands were a direct challenge to non-member Switzerland’s “tax sovereignty”. Marfurt was speaking after the latest round of talks in the Belgian capital on Friday in which the EU continued to insist that low taxes in some Swiss cantons violated…

Swiss Abroad

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Swiss Abroad

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Testing times ahead for UN rights body

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Switzerland elected to new UN human rights body

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No constitutional safeguard for banking secrecy

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Christian Democrats go for woman candidate

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Switzerland and the EU

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Swiss hope to land seat on new UN rights body

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War victims in Ivory Coast neglected

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“Disagreements should not hamper cooperation”

More

Army exercise

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Swiss stick to their guns in tax dispute with EU

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