The diplomat's point of view

Every two months, FDFA diplomats and senior managers put together a piece expressing their views on a topical issue that concerns the department. 

August 2024

Jürg Lauber, Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations and to the other international organisations in Geneva and Secretary General of the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent

The Geneva Conventions are my daily companions. Not only because they are the historical roots of modern multilateralism, but also because they express the fundamental concern to preserve humanity at all times and in all places. They underpin almost all the fields I work in and spur me on, be it in international humanitarian law and human rights, refugee policy, global health issues, challenges posed by emerging technologies or other areas. 

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 were adopted in the aftermath of the horrors of two world wars. They are the only international treaties to which all states have bound themselves. Every day, they have an impact in countless places around the world, for example when an ambulance is granted access to an embattled area or when a prisoner of war receives a visit from an ICRC delegate.

We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions at a time when armed conflicts are on the rise worldwide and reports of new atrocities are coming in thick and fast. This anniversary is therefore an important opportunity to remind ourselves of the fundamental importance of the Conventions.

Another such opportunity will be the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, to be held in Geneva from 28 to 31 October 2024. Participants will include the contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions (states) and the members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (the National Societies, their International Federation, the IFRC, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC). In view of the turmoil and uncertainties around the world, they are called upon to reaffirm their commitment to the existing rules. Beyond that, they will be seeking answers to new social and technological developments concerning matters such as how digital technologies are used in armed conflicts and how to gear humanitarian aid even better to local needs. Another focus will be on how to detect humanitarian disasters earlier on and contain them through suitable measures.

Switzerland is supporting the conference in ways that include sending me to act in an advisory capacity as (designated) Secretary General. This assignment brings me full circle, as I commenced my diplomatic career as a member of the FDFA's human rights and international humanitarian law (Geneva Conventions) unit. I had previously got to know and appreciate the work of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement during field missions. This included Namibia, where I came into contact with ICRC delegates providing humanitarian protection on both sides of the border with Angola, and the Korean peninsula, where the offices of the respective National Red Cross Societies in the border town of Panmunjom maintain one of the few channels of communication between the South and the North.

Our country's unique ties with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement also accompanied me closely later as a Swiss diplomat around the globe, but of course never more so than in my current work in Geneva. Every day here, I realise how much the reputation of the movement and, above all, of the ICRC, extends to Switzerland, but also how high other states' expectations of Switzerland are in this regard and how closely they observe how we behave as state party, host state and donor country. The 75th anniversary and the 34th International Conference are thus also welcome opportunities for us to honour this unique responsibility.