The United Nations European headquarters in Geneva.
Keystone / Martial Trezzini
A conference on the situation of civilians living in the Israeli occupied territories will take place in Geneva on March 7, the Swiss foreign ministry has confirmed. The United Nations General Assembly had given Switzerland a mandate to organise it, as the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions.
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On September 18, the UN General Assembly entrusted Switzerland with the task of organising the meeting when the Gaza war was still raging. This followed a UN resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories within 12 months.
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Switzerland receives UN mandate for meeting on Middle East conflict
“I can inform you that a conference of high contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention will be held in Geneva on March 7, 2025,” Nicolas Bideau, the Swiss foreign ministry’s head of communications, confirmed to Swiss public radio, RTS, on Friday.
196 invited states
The meeting will serve to examine “the measures to be taken to implement the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, he noted.
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Switzerland to host Middle East conference on international humanitarian law
Switzerland has invited all 196 states parties to the Geneva Convention to participate in the conference. “As a depositary state, Switzerland has already organised such conferences in 1999, 2001 and 2014,” says the Swiss ministry.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, part of a series of international treaties agreed in 1949 after World War Two, defines humanitarian protections for civilians living in areas of armed conflict or occupation.
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Adapted from French by DeepL/sb
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