Peace and human rights

The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are particularly severe in developing countries. The FDFA has taken immediate action to mitigate the economic and health effects of the crisis there. It is providing emergency humanitarian aid, supporting international action, and focusing on the management of COVID-19 in ongoing bilateral and global development programs. Furthermore, Switzerland also provides assistance in the area of peace policy.

On 29 October 2021, Federal Councillor Cassis launches the process 'On the Road to Lugano' in preparation for the Ukraine Reform Conference 2022, to be held in Switzerland. Increasing responsibility at local level, lowering the cost of heating, contributing towards conflict prevention – Switzerland has been supporting Ukraine for more than 20 years in the areas of international cooperation, peacebuilding and humanitarian aid. Thanks to this long-standing engagement and its chairmanship of the conference, Switzerland will be able to make a lasting contribution in 2022 to stability and prosperity in Ukraine.

Participants in the Swiss Peacebuilding Training Course play out a fictitious scenario as a UN team on patrol in "Mikeland". They drive their jeeps through mined area and face a moral dilemma in a camp for internally displaced people. Although just a simulation, the training course allows its participants – from Switzerland and abroad – to acquire valuable skills for use in peacebuilding missions.

As Switzerland presides over the Second Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the time is right to give voice to victims.

Switzerland fights vigorously against cluster munitions. Unfortunately, these weapons, which cause significant humanitarian damage, are still in use today. Like some hundred other states parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Switzerland is committed to halting their proliferation and promotes the universalisation of the Convention.

Saype, a French artist living in the Swiss Jura, creates giant paintings out of grass and sand to call for world peace. Saype's eco-friendly grass paintings, like the one currently at the United Nations in New York, pop up and perish around the world in the space of a few days. The latest painting, which Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis presented to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, stands for the joint effort to create a future for everyone.