Switzerland

Present in Lucens.

2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway + 2015: Present at the First International Conference on the SSD in Oslo.

August 2016: CAAC Open Debate: “With regard to concrete proposals to improve the protection of children, Switzerland encourages the Secretary-General to continue to include information on the specific impact on children of attacks against schools, hospitals and their staff in his reports to the Council.”

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools. Provided a speaker for the panel on working with ANSAs.

June 2017:GCPEA attended an NGOs meeting in Geneva with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on CAAC, Ms. Virginia Gamba, organized by the Child Rights Connect Working Group on CAAC, a provided a brief introduction to the Declaration. The SRSG expressed her support for the Declaration, commenting on the effectiveness of the initiatives in linking one of the six violations effectively with efforts on a broader agenda, mobilizing a range of actors working in complementarity and in accordance with their various mandates. Sincere thanks to Warchild NL (Eamonn) for arranging this meeting.

September 2017: GCPEA sent a letter to the ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue on attacks and military use, draw attention to the Declaration and the Guidelines during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict.

October 2017: Cristal attended a meeting with the Adviser Hanna Bodenmann and Adviser Felix Wanner in order to conduct advocacy in lead-up to the Open Debate on CAAC, with the goal of encourage Switzerland to include certain messages in their interventions. The representatives that Cristal met with had not yet seen the statement, which is being drafted in capital. Cristal mentioned the example of the Swiss armed forces amending their manual to explicitly include protection of education institutions, and they said it is unlikely that the intervention will include this as they would have to get additional sign-off in order to include anything specific to the armed forces.

March 2018: During the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child, Switzerland highlighted their support for the Declaration in their national statement.

March 2018: Following advocacy by GCPEA, support was expressed by Swiss, to references to the Declaration in operative and preambular paragraphs of the Resolution A/HRC/37/L.33.

May 2018: During the Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in the Sec. Council Chamber, Switzerland spoke on behalf of the Group of Friends on the Protection of Civilians in Conflict (which includes Japan and Australia), stating that “unlawful attacks on education must be condemned in the strongest terms, and we take note in this regard of the Safe Schools Declaration”.

March 2018: The Permanent Missions, together with ICTJ, co-hosted a side event on the impact of attacks on schools in Syria and ensuring accountability.

July 2018: UNSC Open Debate on children and armed conflict: Switzerland co-sponsored resolution 2427 and joined the statement of Canada on behalf of the GoF which mentioned the Safe Schools Declaration.

March 2019: attended GCPEA side-event on “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva.

March 2019: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

April 2019: GCPEA met with Political Affairs expert. He said he had more leverage for the open debate on protection of civilians which will take place on May 23rd. He underlined that there will be relevant side events related to the 20th anniversary of protection of civilians being added to the UNSC agenda which will provide advocacy opportunities to raise awareness of the Declaration.

May 2019: during the UN Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict referred to the Safe Schools Declaration. condemned unlawful attacks on schools in the strongest terms

May 2019: The Swiss Armed Forces have revised their manual on the legal principles applicable in military operations. In the chapter on the law of armed conflict, in the context of the protection of civilian objects, the manual points out the critical importance of (civilian) educational facilities (translation from German): “Particular caution is required regarding educational institutions. Their destruction can bring particularly serious disadvantages for people and the future of the country. Schools are also home to many children who are to be protected because of their vulnerability, while universities and other higher education establishments regularly display significant cultural assets. Educational institutions must therefore be accorded special importance in the context of precautionary measures and proportionality. Their military use is to be avoided.‘’

July 2019: Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, congratulating Switzerland on endorsing, and encouraging it to share its good practice of implementation with other countries. GCPEA shared the submission with the experts from the Permanent Mission in New York and Geneva.

September 2019: Human Rights Watch made a submission that just made to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which calls on the Committee to congratulate Switzerland for endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, and for incorporating explicit protections for schools from military use into their new military manual. Nevena shared the submission with the expert from the Permanent Mission in Geneva.

March 2020: During the Interactive Dialogue: Commission of inquiry on Syria, they referred to : more than 1,1 million children who have ceased to attend school and to destruction of schools.

June 2021: Apolline met with Vincent Conus, First Secretary at the PM of Switzerland to the UN in New-York. Apolline shared information on recent developments regarding the SSD, most notably the upcoming Nigeria conference, the state-led implementation network and Eurasia regional consultation. After inquiring about good practices, he shared contact details of Berne colleagues better placed to elaborate on this issue. Apolline shared recommendations for the UNSC CAAC debate and followed up by sending the save the date for the Nigeria conference as well as the CAAC letter with recommendations. He confirmed Switzerland would include some of these recommendations into their national statement.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

December 2021: positive statement at arria formula meeting on protection of education during armed conflict citing SSD. “Strongly condemns attacks on schools, students and teachers, in violation of international humanitarian law”. “We support all efforts to protect education from attack, …, furthermore, we encourage all member states to join the Safe Schools Declaration to ensure its implementation. For example, Switzerland amended its military handbook on provisional law, to avoid the military use of education institutions”/

February 2022: On 21 February, GCPEA met with Marie Bruning at the Swiss permanent mission in Geneva. Beathe briefed the representative on the state-led implementation network, its activities, and explained how Switzerland can participate in the network moving forward. Nevena provided further information on the previous and upcoming Spain-led trainings, and Apolline informed her about the upcoming Geneva workshop in March. The representative was interested in exploring the synergies between Switzerland’s priorities on education and the Declaration, including by reinforcing the SSD focus in their activities. We also discussed the upcoming High-Level pledging conference on Yemen (16 March) which Switzerland is co-hosting with Sweden. She advised that it would be good for us to share a briefing with key recommendations in advance of the debate to make sure education is included in their statement.

July 2022: At the UNSC CAAC debate : – “Switzerland calls for the implementation of Security Council resolution 2601 (2021) which was introduced by Norway and the Niger, on the protection of education in conflict. We also call for the adoption of the Safe Schools Declaration by all States”

September 2022: Endorsed the Call to Action on Education in crisis situations (refers to EuA22 data) at the Transforming Education Summit

October 2022: On 10 October, we met with Julia Stricker – First Secretary at the PM in NY to discuss Switzerland’s priorities during its upcoming tenure at the UNSC. We explained that we work closely with the mission in Geneva (member of Core Group on SSD) and explored synergies and areas for collaboration on UNSCRR2601, ECW high level pledging conference, and the broader NY level. UNSCR2601: They were already thinking about doing a side event or Aria formula meeting to mark the third anniversary of the resolution. We strongly encouraged them to move this plan to next year for the second anniversary. She also said they would be supportive of co-sponsoring an event this year, but not take the lead. EiE: Switzerland is co-organising the ECW High Level Pledging Conference (February 2023). She was supportive of organising a roundtable/ side event on protecting education at the Conference. She wants to explore idea of connecting the NY and Geneva levels and noted that Malta would be at the UNSC Presidency in February so she proposed to do an event in New York in the margins of the conference. She will follow-up with her capital and keep us informed. POC week: they are planning to organise a photo exhibition on protecting education to be displayed during the POC week in May 2023. They want to mainstream this issue within the POC discussions/ link the CAAC and POC agendas. Accountability: we informed her of our upcoming research paper on accountability for attacks on education. She was very interested.We also discussed the need to mainstream language of UNSCR2601 into Security Council country-specific resolutions/mandate renewals, and stressed that GCPEA can support with briefing notes on attacks on education and recommendations for planned trips and discussions within the GoF on CAAC (Syria and Yemen). She also noted that Switzerland is supporting a UNSC visit to a school that was attacked for 2023

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.

September 2023: On 6 September, Apolline met with Irina Siminichina, Attache at the mission in Geneva and the new focal point for the Core Group. I briefed her on GCPEA’s work, the SSD, the Core Group in Geneva, the state-led network and upcoming priorities, including the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. I secured an intervention from the floor from her ambassador at the event.