- Home
- FDFA
- News
-
Dossiers
- Summit on Peace in Ukraine
- Support of the Confederation for the people affected by the war in Ukraine
- Switzerland in the UN Security Council
- International cooperation: Effective support in a difficult context
- The 2022 Federal Presidency: key messages and meetings
- Switzerland's activities in Ukraine
- Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) in Lugano
- AVIS28 – Inspiring Switzerland to be ready for the future
- Sustainable Swiss embassies
- Diplomacy through the ages
- Switzerland, multilateralism and other celebrations in 2019
- Democracy Without Borders
- FDFA commitment to refugees and migration issues
- Swiss protecting power mandates for the United States and Cuba
- OSCE Chairmanship 2014
- Arab Forum on Asset Recovery
- Swiss efforts to protect children in armed conflicts
- World Day against the Death Penalty
- Gender equality and Women's rights
- 150 years of Swiss humanitarian commitment
- 15 years of Swiss UN membership
- Switzerland commemorates the victims of the Holocaust
- Switzerland's position on the Middle East conflict
- Swiss commitment to humanitarian demining in 2023
- OSCE Chairmanship 2014
- In focus
The Swiss Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is organising an international conference on human rights defenders in conjunction with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and with the support of the Serbian Chairmanship 2015. Some 100 national human rights experts of the OSCE participating States, human rights defenders and representatives of civil society and human rights organisations from Switzerland and abroad are attending the conference.
The protection and promotion of human rights and the strengthening of the rule of law are objectives of Swiss foreign policy. These objectives can only be achieved if internationally recognised human rights norms and standards are actually implemented. Human rights defenders play a key role in this respect but are often intimidated and prevented from carrying out their work. Given this situation, the protection of human rights defenders is crucially important.