News

Switzerland has been tasked by the UN with organising a Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory. The FDFA is responsible for organising the conference. Ambassador Franz Perrez will oversee this process, while Ambassador Salman Bal will conduct consultations. The conference is scheduled to take place in March 2025 in Geneva. The Federal Council was briefed on the progress of work to organise the conference at its meeting on 13 November 2024.

In the 3rd quarter of 2024, the number of people in employment in Switzerland rose by 0.7% compared with the same quarter of the previous year. During the same period, the unemployment rate as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) rose to 4.7% in Switzerland and fell to 5.8% in the European Union (EU). These are some of the results of the Swiss Labour Force Survey conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

Robots that can sense touch and perceive temperature differences? An unexpected material might just make this a reality. At Empa's Laboratory for High-Performance Ceramics, researchers are developing soft and intelligent sensor materials based on ceramic particles.

The Swiss Confederation issued three bonds by auction on 13.11.2024: 0.25%, maturity 23.06.2035 (reopening) and 1.25%, maturity 28.06.2043 (reopening) and 0.50%, maturity 24.05.2055 (reopening). The issuance volume (excluding own holdings) amounts to a total of 477.560 million francs.

During its meeting on 13 November 2024, the Federal Council approved the strategic objectives of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for 2025 to 2028. Beforehand, it held its annual meeting with FINMA's senior management.

A nuclear waste storage facility needs to be secure, even if glaciers were to churn down from the Alps into the midlands in a distant future. This is why Nagra arranged for a study of the sediments that had been deposited in former, deep glacial lakes. The layers are around 600,000 years old, making them much older than the last ice age, which was around 24,000 years ago. Good news for Nagra: it seems that the layers of stone lying beneath have not been eroded by ice since that time.

On 12 November, President Viola Amherd, head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) and Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), will receive Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin in Bern for an exchange on current security policy issues.

Alexandre Fasel, the state secretary of the FDFA, met with Deng Li, vice foreign minister of the People's Republic of China on 12 November in Beijing. The meeting was held within the framework of the bilateral political dialogue between Switzerland and China. On the agenda were a review of bilateral relations, including the dialogue on human rights; economic relations, including the optimisation of the free trade agreement; multilateral and international issues; and the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In 2023, the costs of nursing homes increased by 5% compared with 2022 and those of home care services by 7%, reaching a total of CHF 15 billion. These are the largest increases recorded in the past decade. People living in nursing homes have never needed as much care as they did in 2023. Each resident required an average of 110 minutes of care per day (+4% compared with 2022). A similar trend can be seen for home care services. Each client received an average of 56 hours of care in 2023 (+6.3% compared with 2022). These are some of the findings on health services gathered by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

The Swiss Confederation is offering three bonds on a public tender system on 13.11.2024: 0.25%, maturity 23.06.2035 (reopening) and 1.25%, maturity 28.06.2043 (reopening) and 0.50%, maturity 24.05.2055 (reopening).

On 11 November 2024, the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER has amended annex 1 of the ordinance on measures against Myanmar. Three individuals and one entity have been added to the annex. The measures come into force at 18:00 on 12 November 2024.

The UN sanctions committee has amended the list of sanctioned individuals, companies and organizations. The SESAM database has been updated accordingly. On 4 March 2016 the Federal Council has adopted the Ordinance on the automatic application of the UN Security Council’s sanctions lists. Hence, the amendments of the UN Security Council’s sanctions lists enter into force in Switzerland without delay.