Switzerland

In the 19th century the anarchist gathering International was founded in a Swiss valley. To celebrate the anniversary, thousands of anarchists made a pilgrimage to the small town of St-Imier last month. Their positions, for example on Ukraine, differ widely.

Someone has sprayed graffiti on a house in the centre of St-Imier in northwestern Switzerland. “Sabotage everywhere” it says in French, with an anarchy symbol underneath. Someone else has stuck a hand-written poster in English over it: “Please respect the residents and their houses”.

This sums up the scope of the anarchist congress quite well. Some 5,000 visitors from all over the world travelled to St-Imier for “Anarchy 2023” from July 19-23: some as onlookers, most out of anarchist conviction. Many of them camped. Most wore black.

The canteen they organised cooked tens of thousands of meals over five days; the washing up was also done by volunteers.

It also has a camera as seen in the picture and its at least partially powered by a solar panel, hence I think it‘s fairly low-power. *Edit: Grammar

UBS announced the first steps to the restructuring of its investment banking division in an internal memo on Monday. The plans for the integration of Credit Suisse will affect hundreds of employees.

In a memo first obtained by the Reuters news agency, UBS outlines its plans for integrating Credit Suisse into its folds, starting with the investment banking division.

The memo included an announcement of the appointments of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) division, Marc-Anthony Hourihan and Nestor Paz-Galindo as global co-heads and David Kostel and Christian Lesueur as global co-heads of the coverage division. Tom Churton was noted to be appointed as Global Chief of Staff.

However, the memo also included notice that hundreds of employees will have to leave the company. The cuts would begin this week, Reuters reported on Monday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

In a statement made to Awp Finanznachrichten AG, a Swiss business news agency, UBS emphasised that Credit Suisse employees had been given a "fair chance" in the selection process and UBS had not only relied on its previous executives. The statement also said UBS's growth strategy in investment banking would continue to be geared towards sustainable growth and that the bank intends to maintain a "focused" business model and accelerating UBS's growth strategy, especially in the Americas.

Reuters reports that hundreds of Credit Suisse bankers have already left, while UBS has laid off a number of Credit Suisse's investment bank staff around the world. Additionally, around 80% of Credit Suisse's Hong Kong-based investment banking division, the largest proportion of the banks staff in Asia, are to be laid off.

Brigitte Beck, CEO of the Swiss state-owned defence contracting firm Ruag, is stepping down after less than a year in the position. The reason for her resignation is controversial statements made on Switzerland’s neutrality policy.

Beck has resigned as CEO for the defence contracting company, Ruag announced on Monday. Her decision to resign followed controversy regarding comments she had made in public appearances in the spring of 2023, the company said in a statement.

In April, she withdrew an interview she had given with the Swiss publishing group CH Media. During the interview she criticised the Swiss government's stance on neutrality, specifically taking issue with the framework of sanctions against Russia.

According to media reports, she prevented the publication of her interview by threatening legal action.

In May at a public podium discussion, Beck went on to say that Spain and Germany should deliver "the stuff", meaning Swiss weapons, to Ukraine despite the fact that a transfer of Swiss weapons is prohibited by the Swiss War Materiel Act. Beck stated that it was her belief that there would not be any consequence for the countries in question.

In response, Defence Minister Viola Amherd said on Swiss public television, SRF, that she would never give other countries recommendations on what they should do. However, in May Amherd said that the Ruag board of directors was responsible for personnel management.

The Ruag board of directors subsequently conducted an in-depth investigation, according to the statement released by the company. The result revealed neither criminal nor sanctionable offences on the part of the persons involved. However, the company stated that the controversy could ultimately only be resolved through a change of leadership.

The search for a new CEO has already begun. CFO Christian Priller and Thomas Kipfer, head of the Air business unit, will jointly take over operational management in the interim.

The Federal Office of Public Health does not have to disclose the cost for cancer treatment using CAR-T (Chimeric antigen receptor) therapy, ruled the Federal Administrative Court. According to the court ruling, disclosing the cost of the therapy in Switzerland would likely void any discounts offered.

Disclosing the true cost of such cancer treatment would cause companies with marketing authorisation for the therapy in Switzerland to revert to the list price of the treatment. The current list price is around CHF370,000 ($422,000), but currently the Swiss government receives an undisclosed discount.

Divulging the cost of these treatments to the public would trigger a guillotine clause in the contracts, potentially invalidating the discounts agreed between the Swiss authorities and drug companies. The Federal Administrative Court wrote in a ruling published on Monday, that the Swiss government would be hindered in ensuring security of supply for new, innovative and high-priced therapies if it were to publicly divulge the costs of these cancer therapies.

Following an inquiry on the costs of these treatments by a journalist, the Federal Administrative Court says that disclosure of the cancer therapy costs would impair the implementation of concrete official measures in accordance with the objectives. This would fulfill an exception clause of the Public Information Act, which in principle grants all persons a right of access to official documents.

CAR-T cell therapy is currently only provisionally listed in the list of reimbursable services covered by Swiss compulsory health insurance system. It has been under evaluation since the beginning of the year, and this evaluation will continue until the end of 2024.

The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner had recommended that access to the relevant documents be granted in full. The information would concern services for which the price had been agreed upon by the Swiss authorities and the drug companies. It was not apparent which specific official measure could be affected.

CAR-T cell therapy is used for cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. The patients' white blood cells are modified so that they recognise and fight the cancer cells. It is not considered a medicine, but a medical service.

Swiss International Air Lines has adjusted its flight route as a result of the closure of the airspace over Niger due to the ongoing coup in Niger.

Passengers whose connections could not be made as a result of the flight re-route, were rebooked by the airline on alternative connections, Swiss International Air Lines stated on Monday in response to a request from the Keystone-SDA news agency. There is no direct connection from Zurich Airport to Niger.

Diori Hamani International Airport in Niger’s capital Niamey, is currently continuing to operate commercial flights. The military junta in Niger stated it had closed the country's air space because of the threat of military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). A statement by the junta's spokesman on Nigerien national television on Sunday evening said that any attempt to violate the air space would be answered immediately and with force.

An ultimatum issued by ECOWAS over the weekend calling on the military to reinstate the detained President Mohamed Bazoum and restore constitutional order. ECOWAS said it would otherwise take measures that could include force.

There are around twenty Swiss nationals still in Niger. As of Sunday, 13 Swiss nationals have been able to leave the country, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said in a statement to Keystone-SDA.

The FDFA said they were still in contact with the Swiss nationals who remain in Niger. An organised return is not currently planned and Swiss nationals who decide to leave the country are responsible for their own return, says the FDFA. But the FDFA states it will provide assistance as much as possible.

People living in Switzerland have an average of four close friends and an extended friendship circle of eight, according to a study.

Overall, with an average of four close friends per person, the Swiss are comparable to Americans and Germans, based on the first major survey of its kind in Switzerland released on Monday.

It's often not easy to make friends in the Alpine nation, but once you do, the relationship is likely to be solid.

“It's difficult to break into Swiss friendship circles, because they are relatively static and based on long-standing relationships," note the authors.

Switzerland favours "homogeneous and lasting friendships", which contributes to social cohesion. Countries such as Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands also show a similar profile.

The best places to make friends are at school and work (43.7%), through family and acquaintances (23.5%), then sport (10%). Online friendships account for less than 3% of friendships.

Almost three quarters of those surveyed are satisfied with their friendships. But half of them regret not having enough time to maintain them.

These are the findings of a survey of 3,000 people by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute on behalf of Swiss supermarket chain Migros.

All types of medicines are now affected by shortages, according to the president of pharmaSuisse, the Swiss pharmacists association.

Martine Ruggli-Ducrot called for swift action to address the shortage of medicine, in an interview published in Le Temps newspaper on Monday.

“Whether it's anti-diabetes drugs, high blood pressure remedies, opioids or antibiotics, they're all affected,” she said.

There is also a problem with packaging materials, such as glass bottles and vials, which are mainly produced in Ukraine, Ruggli-Ducrot added. She said some Swiss pharma companies were giving up marketing medicines that they feel are too expensive to produce.

The president of pharmaSuisse called for cooperation with the European Union.

"It is essential to diversify continental production to enable Europe to be more autonomous in the event of supply chain problems," she said, pointing out that the active ingredients needed to manufacture medicines were very often produced in Asia.

"It is this high concentration that makes the whole system vulnerable," she said.

A recent court decision about the right to possess a certain amount of cannabis for private use has also raised questions about harder drugs, the Sunday press writes.

Last month the Federal Court ruled that police have no right to confiscate cannabis if it amounts to less than 10 grams, is destined for personal use, and if the user in question is not caught in the act of smoking it publicly.

According to the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, that decision could also now set a precedent for other drugs.

Two prominent legal experts told the paper that the principle also applies to harder drugs like heroin, cocaine – a popular drug in Swiss cities – and crack, which is currently causing problems particularly in Geneva.

Justice authorities are concerned about this, the paper writes: it quotes police in St Gallen and in Zurich who want the concrete implications of the recent decision to be spelled out at the national level rather than left open for interpretation.

One major question is related to the amount of each drug deemed acceptable to be held for private use: only the 10 grams for cannabis is specifically defined by law.

For other drugs, experts say “personal use” amounts are what a user would go through in a week. In St Gallen, for example, authorities set this as 2 grammes of cocaine: that is, some 25 lines, which would have a street value of around CHF200.

Geneva is one of the world’s espionage hotspots, and the Swiss authorities have long come to terms with it.

Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, around 500 Russian diplomats were expelled from European countries in the spring of 2022 – all suspected of espionage. Switzerland was about the only country that did not follow suit.

According to the 2023 situation reportExternal link of the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS), around 220 people work in Russia’s diplomatic and consular representations in Bern and Geneva. “At least a third of them are likely to still be active for Russian intelligence agencies,” states the FIS.

In most other European countries, the latest East-West confrontation has made the work of Russian espionage networks increasingly difficult. “It’s very likely that the Russian intelligence services have more leeway in Switzerland due to their large presence,” reads the statement of the FIS.

The Linth plain in eastern Switzerland has lost between 12 and 15 centimetres in recent years as the result of long-term soil drainage, media has reported.

The sinking of the canton Glarus plain – the site of various industries and an important north-south motorway – was noticed by cantonal authorities recently, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported on Saturday.

Measurement work in the area consistently discovered discrepancies compared to the measurements in the national altitude register, cantonal authorities communicated at the time.

An expert from the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo) told the NZZ that the sinkage was part of a long-term trend. “The Linth plain and other areas where major watercourse corrections were made in the 19th and 20th centuries – such as the Jura – are still subsiding today due to soil drainage,” Helena Aström Boss said.

The data have meanwhile been corrected, the NZZ writes, and there have been no border shifts or obvious changes in the landscape for the population.

The Swiss reference point for altitude measurement was fixed in 1902 at a site in Geneva, at 373.6 metres above sea level. A network of over 6,000 points are scattered throughout the country, mostly embedded in rocks and mountains viewed as particularly stable.

Officer-level military staff largely spend the night in hotels rather than barracks, which leads to significant costs, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reports.

Some 121,000 such hotel stays were made by officers last year, the paper wrote on Sunday. The cost was CHF8.5 million ($9.74 million), about 40% of the total accommodation costs of the troops.

In 2023, the figure is set to increase by CHF3 million due to a boost of the army’s daily rate for accommodation – from CHF70 to CHF100 for officers and senior non-commissioned officers.

According to the NZZ am Sonntag, the army is thus an important driver of local tourism, accounting for more overnight stays than Japanese tourists.

The hotel association Hotelleriesuisse even advises its members on how to get the most out of army guests, the paper writes.

On average, full-time employees missed 9.3 days of work due to illness or accident last year, an increase of 34% compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Between 2010 and 2019, average annual absences remained relatively stable between 6.2 and 7.2 days, the SonntagsBlick and SonntagsZeitung newspapers reported on Sunday.

Even in the two coronavirus years of 2020 and 2021, workplace absences were lower than last year, at 8.1 and 7.5 days respectively.

Both sexes contributed to the upwards trend, with women logging 10.2 sick days last year – compared with 8 in 2019 – and men 8.9, compared with 6.8 in 2019.

Younger people were meanwhile more likely to be absent: 15-24-year-olds were most affected, missing 10.4 days – a significant increase of around 60% since the pandemic. Absences among 25-34-year-olds also rose by almost 50% to 9.2 days.

In contrast, among 45-54-year-olds the number of absences increased by “just” 30% to 8.9, while the 55-64-year-olds – who previously were top of the absent list – managed to reduce their number of sick days from 10.2 to 9.6.

The highest absence levels were recorded in manual and service jobs such as construction, hospitality, and healthcare. Scientific roles, as well as the banking/insurance sector and farming sector saw the least amount of sick days.

Ruag HQ in Bern: the company has said in recent years it wants to focus more on the space sector than on defence.

A former employee of the state-owned Ruag defence contracting firm has been cleared of making illegal deals with Russia.

The Swiss Attorney-General’s Office (OAG) confirmed on Saturday that the main charges against the man – violation of the Federal Act on War Materiel – had been dropped due to lack of evidence.

The information had earlier been reported by newspapers from the Tamedia group.

The man was however slapped with a suspended fine of CHF27,000 ($30,940) for illegally taking commission payments of CHF150,000. He also has to pay a fine of CHF4,500 and the costs of proceedings.

The case dates to 2018, when Ruag was tipped off by its own whistleblower office about dubious arms deals with Russia made by a senior employee. Media reports said the head of Ruag’s ammunition division had allegedly made the deals, worth millions, with the then Russia head of the Julius Baer bank.

Former Ruag boss Urs Breitmeier said at the time that the man had “reached an agreement without our knowledge with our sales partner that he could sell other products in parallel with ours and receive additional commissions on all products sold”.

The OAG’s conclusion five years later is however that all the ammo deliveries in question between 2010 and 2013 were duly approved.

The investigation also found no concrete evidence that other arms deliveries and exports of dual-use goods from 2010 to 2016 had not been approved in accordance with the War Materiel Act, nor that the Federal Embargo Act – the legal basis for implementing international sanctions – had been violated.

The former Julius Baer director and his companies were placed on a sanctions list by the US Treasury in February this year in connection with the war in Ukraine.

They are suspected of having secretly supplied the Russian military and secret service with sensitive Western technology and equipment for nuclear weapons laboratories.

Large fires which broke out three weeks ago in southern Switzerland have stabilised enough to allow a return to normality, authorities have said.

In the last few days, firefighters and forest workers have found just isolated embers, and emergency work is gradually winding down, authorities said on Friday evening.

On July 17 large fires broke out in the mountains above Bitsch in canton of Valais, leading to the temporary evacuation of over 200 locals.

However, new fires still cannot be ruled out, authorities said. Embers hidden in the ground can often ignite new flames months later. The fire brigade is thus keeping a ten-strong first-aid unit on alert, while equipment such as a mobile extinguishing tank will also remain on site for the time being. A helicopter can also be requested at short notice if necessary.

The army, which was also involved in operations, carried out a final surveillance flight – equipped with thermal imaging equipment – last Monday.

Civil protection staff will continue to operate a fire watch, and around 25 civil defense staff will be deployed by the middle of next week.

Elsewhere, forestry experts will analyse the increased risk of erosion due to heavy rainfall, it said.

In total some 132 hectares were affected by the fire, of which 35 hectares were rocky terrain.

About three quarters of the trees in the affected forest area were burned, mostly spruces.

Switzerland loses clearly to Spain and is eliminated from the tournament. The Swiss women lose the round of 16 against Spain with 1:5.

The Swiss hotel sector recorded 19.5 million overnight stays in the first half of 2023. This is an increase of 13.8%, or 2.4 million more overnight stays when compared with the same period in 2022.

All six months in the first half of 2023 showed an increase in overnight stays when compared to the same time period of the previous year. These provisional figures also show an increase of 3.6% as compared to the first six months of 2019, the time prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) writes in a press release on Friday.

Increase in foreign visitors

In the first half of 2023, overnight stays by foreign guests increased by 33% compared to the same time period of 2022. Significant growth was recorded in all months of the first half of 2023. The highest increase was in January, with a recorded 63.5% increase in overnight stays. However, foreign visitor interest was still 7.5% lower than that from the first half of 2019.

Visitors from the US accounted for the highest increase, accounting for 1.7 million visitors with an increase of 589,000 visitors as compared to 2022. Visitors from Asia doubled with an increase of 864,000 more visitors.

The Swiss regions with the largest increase in visitors were Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne and Bern with an increase of 31.7%, 26.7%, 19.4% and 18.8% respectively. In canton Ticino, overnight visitor interest decreased by 3.2%.

Domestic interest from within Switzerland, however, remain relatively unchanged when compared to last year.

The French cosmetic company Yves Rocher is to close all storefronts in German-speaking countries, including Switzerland, due to economic challenges. This will affect a total of around 350 jobs.

Yves Rocher is closing all its branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. "With its current business model, Yves Rocher is no longer able to operate sustainably and successfully," the company said in Stuttgart on Thursday in response to a request by the press. The shops are to be gradually shut down in the coming months.

Around 140 storefronts in German-speaking countries will be closed. This will affect about 350 jobs. Affected employees were informed about the closures in mid-March. Some of the branches had already closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The cosmetics company cited economic problems as the reason: "The past two years have also presented us with enormous economic challenges," a spokesperson for the company said. With the current business model, the company is no longer able to operate sustainably and successfully. However, the brand will not disappear from the German market completely. "Our customers will continue to find our products in our online shop and can order via direct mail," the company said in a statement.

++Inflation profiteering charge levelled at Swiss retailers

Yves Rocher is considered a pioneer in the field of natural cosmetics. Groupe Rocher has more than 15,000 employees internationally and achieved an annual turnover of more than €2.3 billion (CHF 2.2 billion).

This summer, for the first time ever, water rescue dogs trained in Italy are being deployed on Lake Lugano, in southern Switzerland, to prevent swimming accidents.

The pilot project is being implemented during the weekends in July and August to make sure bathers in Lugano do not drown. The initiative of Patrick Tempobono, President of the Lugano Life Saving Society, and the city of Lugano is also a response to the high number of fatal swimming accidents recorded in Switzerland every year: in 2023 around 20 people have already lost their lives swimming.

The dogs wear special life jackets that allow them to get up to three people out of the water at the same time. They also perform warm-up exercises by the most popular bathing spots in Lugano, attracting the attention of the bathers. This way, the members of the Life Saving Society can raise awareness on the dangers of swimming.

Not only do they prevent accidents, but they can also save lives in case of an emergency. So far, there is no official training facility in the country. The dogs are trained in Milan by the Italian School for rescue dogs and are now deployed on many Italian beaches. The founder of the school, Ferruccio Pilenga, explains that dogs and their owners have to go through several months of intensive training before they are ready for action.

So, people in Lugano are already thinking ahead and want to further implement this project. "Our goal is to set up our own training centre for water dogs next year," says Patrick Tempobono.

This would allow authorities to better tackle the danger of drowning in rivers and lakes. "In Lugano, fortunately, we had no fatalities in water last year or this year," says city councillor Tiziano Galeazzi. But he also explains that the number of fatalities has increased in recent years, especially among “people who cannot swim or who come from outside of canton Ticino and are not familiar with the local waters.”

The Climate and Innovation Law, which was on the ballot on June 18, was accepted by 59.1% of Swiss voters despite the rejection of a similar CO2 law in 2021. This was due to low mobilisation from the right-wing supporters and voting behaviours based on party preferences, an analysis by the gfs.bern research institute shows.

An analysis by the research institute gfs.bern, shows that the reason the climate law passed is due to low mobilisation of rural voters and voting behaviours in line with party preference. The voter participation for the climate law was only 42%.

According to the press release by gfs.bern, prior to the C02 vote in 2021 there was a greater mobilisation of voters, especially in the rural areas, due to two agricultural initiatives that were also on the ballot. The mobilisation by the right-wing Swiss Peoples Party and the Swiss farmers unions we the primary reason for the rejection of the CO2 law.

Swiss voters who align themselves with right-wing party ideology had a much lower voter turnout this election, which in turn affected the result and approval of the climate law. This past June, the gfs.bern analysis recorded 30% less voters from those positioned on the far right of the political spectrum.

Differences between the two bills were not only found in terms of mobilisation, but also in voting behaviour according to party preference. This past June, 64% of The Centre and 66% of the Radical-Liberal Party supporters voted in favour of the climate law. In comparison, 47% of The Centre and 37% of the Radical-Liberal Party supporters had voted in favour of the CO2 law in 2021.

The Vox analysis is carried out after every federal vote by the gfs.bern research institute and is financed by the Swiss Federal Council. For the analysis of the federal vote on June 18 2023, 3,143 eligible voters were surveyed, according to gfs.bern.

Two young lynx have been sighted in the canton of Graubünden. After more than a century, this is the first confirmed lynx offspring in the lower Engadine. A hunter has observed the cubs in Zernez.

A picture evidence with rarity value succeeded to the hunter on July 22, 2023 in the late evening during the game observation on the territory of the municipality of Zernez, as the Office of Hunting and Fishing of the Canton of Graubünden announced on Friday. Through a telescope, a female lynx accompanied by two cubs could be observed and photographed.

According to the communiqué, the lynx was exterminated in the lower Engadine around the year 1872. For at least three years, a male lynx has been living permanently in the area around Zernez. Already in the previous year, a visual observation of young lynxes had been reported by hunters, which, however, could not be confirmed due to a lack of evidence. The identification of the female with young animals is still pending.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has rejected the corruption accusations of the US parliamentary commission concerning the return of money to a sanctioned Russian individual.

The United States Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, had asked the US government to sanction former Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber and two other former federal employees for money laundering.

The allegations put forward in the Magnitsky case concerned a Russian tax scandal and the three Swiss citizens were accused of returning money to a Russian person under US sanctions. The Helsinki commission also spoke of corruption and cast doubts on the functioning of the Swiss judiciary.

The Tamedia media group reported on Thursday that the FDFA expressed its disappointment with the US commission’s statement, adding that Switzerland “used the appropriate diplomatic channels to communicate its position to the US authorities”. The FDFA also said that the "claims that Switzerland is doing less than other countries and that it is still harboring funds from sanctioned individuals without freezing them are unfounded."

The department representatives also assured that the separation of powers is respected in the Alpine country and that they have blocked CHF7.5 billion due to sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

Although in June, the European Union had officially recognised Switzerland as a partner country in the implementation of Russian sanctions over its war in Ukraine, some have criticised the Swiss for not doing enough. For example, former Attorney General Lauber has recently said that Switzerland is “too passive and too hesitant” when it comes to the implementation of Russian sanctions.

For the first time in Switzerland, a Volkswagen customer won an appeal court case against car dealer AMAG, obtaining the cancellation of the sale agreement and a compensation of CHF18,000 ($20,572) - plus estimated court and legal costs.

In Switzerland no Volkswagen customer has ever been compensated after the 2015 Dieselgate controversy. But this is about to change. A Geneva court has once more confirmed the liability of an AMAG importer and concluded that the Swiss owner of a Volkswagen diesel car was right when he cancelled his sale agreement, Swiss public television RTSExternal link reported on Thursday.

The court had already reached this conclusion in 2021, but AMAG had appealed. In June, the trial in Geneva granted another victory to the Swiss customer, who will be the first in the Alpine country to get compensation.

The court ruled that the vehicle was still too polluting according to the applicable standards, and the Swiss driver could have been fined for driving the car. But AMAG said in a statement that the judgement was based on “a legally incorrect expert opinion. Its erroneous results are not transferable to other vehicles.” Now the Swiss company does not rule out a further appeal to the Federal Court.

But the lawyer of the plaintiff, Jacques Roulet, told RTS that there are potentially tens of thousands of Swiss drivers who drive VW diesel vehicles with manipulated engines that are not in compliance.

In 2015, the emissions scandal revealed how around 11 million of the German diesel cars were manipulated to show low emissions in official tests, but in normal use were significantly more polluting. Around 180,000 car buyers and lessees in Switzerland are said to have been affected by the manipulations.

Twenty years on, Switzerland is turning its back on the Geneva Initiative, which deals with the conflict in the Middle East. It believes that the international political context has changed dramatically and that a “more innovative and effective” approach is needed

The Geneva Initiative was signed in October 2003 by two former ministers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, under the impetus of Swiss academic Alexis Keller. It sought to provide – if not a definitive solution to the Middle East conflict – then at least a first step towards a global resolution.

It was “the first initiative of its kind that proposed concrete steps to resolve the Middle East conflict”, recalls Mohamed Cherif, former Geneva correspondent for SWI, who covered the event at the time.

2003 was the year when the United States invaded Iraq. It was also when the second Palestinian intifada was at its height. This uprising, in which Palestinians attacked Israeli soldiers by throwing stones at them and committed suicide attacks, broke out after the failure of the Camp David agreements in 2000. In retaliation, Israel bombed the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and the West Bank. In total, an estimated 1,000 Israelis and 3,000-5000 Palestinians have died during the violence.

Alexis Keller also remembers the optimism that greeted the initiative, the idea for which was born in Geneva in 2001 and concluded in Amman, Jordan, two-and-a-half years later. “There was an atmosphere of mutual respect and recognition between the two parties, leading to real joy and a feeling of having made history,” he told SWI.

However, 20 years after the agreement was signed, it must be acknowledged that it has had no impact on the ground: Israeli settlements are proliferating, and the two countries are locked in a simmering conflict with nearly daily casualties. Switzerland has announced that it will no longer fund the initiative after 2023.

Keller is surprised at this decision. He believes “the text still provides the most complete model for a two-state solution, especially given that the foreign ministry has not announced any concrete alternative”.

Swiss cement maker Holcim is facing a formal complaint over alleged human rights violations and environmental damages linked to its subsidiary in Uganda. Holcim responded by stating that it follows high due diligence standards.

“Despite constant protests against the negative consequences and ecological damage caused by the cement manufacturer's activities, Hima Cement has not engaged in any constructive dialogue to listen to the concerns of the communities concerned, nor has it provided any information on their claims,” the Society for Threatened Peoples said in a press release issued on Wednesday.

Ugandan NGO Twerwaneho Listeners' Club (TLC) and local TV station Clouds FM filed the complaint in Switzerland the same day with the National Contact Point of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Switzerland, according to the same source. National Contact Points (NCPs) are offices set up by governments that have adhered to the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises.

The guidelines are a code of conduct that provides businesses with a framework for responsible business practices (also referred to as corporate social responsibility). The NGOs' complaint concerns general principles, discolusure, environment, human rights and taxation.

The Swiss NCP has no punitive powers and can only help bring conflicting parties to the table to start a discussion in Switzerland. Still, many affected communities have made use of the Swiss NCP to obtain a meeting with company decision-makers, something that would have been nearly impossible to achieve in their home country.

The Zug-based multinational told SWI that "Holcim operates according to the highest standards of governance, ethics and integrity with zero tolerance for any breaches across its business worldwide".

Amplifying local voices

The Ugandan organisations focus on human rights and are defending communities affected by the activities of cement manufacturer Hima Cement, which sources pozzolan from Harugongo and Kicwamba in central-western Uganda, according to the Bern-based Society for Threatened Peoples.

Holcim’s subsidiary in Uganda is accused of inaction in the face of complaints spanning a seven-year period and retaliatory measures against community members who raised due diligence issues.

The Society for Threatened Peoples, an indigenous rights organisation, is not one of the plaintiffs, but supports them in their work with the press and media and advises them on technical issues relating to the appeal procedure.

It also told SWI it is in dialogue with its stakeholders globally and that the company has been in contact with the mentioned local NGO as well as local communities regarding local topics for many years.