Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland today – my birthday, in fact. Read on for profiles of other people with Swiss connections who came into the world on January 19.  

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In the news:  Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko (pictured) has asked Switzerland to supply Ukraine with defence weapons such as air defence systems.

• Klitschko said that in conversations with members of the Swiss government he heard one sentence particularly often: “We are a neutral country.” On the one hand he understands Swiss neutrality, he said. Nevertheless, he repeated his view that “one has to take a stance”. In today’s world, he said, one cannot be neutral. Other big names at the World Economic Forum agreed with him.
• Confiscated Russian funds cannot be used to rebuild Ukraine without a clear legal basis, says Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. “We are all aware that the damage caused by the aggressor should be repaired by the aggressor,” he said. “But we have to act within the rules of law, otherwise we lose credibility when we condemn others for violations of the law.”
• More than 52,000 cases of illegal migration were recorded from January to December, about 33,000 more than the previous year. Many migrants who arrived illegally arrived in Switzerland across the borders with Austria and Italy, the Federal Office of Customs and Border Protection said today. The increase was mainly due to the influx of migrants from Afghanistan and Morocco.

Corinna Staffe

Can the brutality of the war in Ukraine go unpunished? Can peace be lasting if it’s not followed by justice? And can those responsible be pinned down? In a special package, we put these questions to various representatives of international justice.

Ben Ferencz, 102, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremburg Trials, never thought he would see war in Europe again. After the Second World War Ferencz helped to try Nazi leaders. SWI swissinfo.ch journalist Elena Servettaz asked him how he saw the Russian attack on Ukraine. “It’s difficult to say who a criminal is,” he said. “But to attack another nation, that’s certainly a war crime.” Should Russian President Vladimir Putin be brought before a court? “Whoever starts an illegal war – out of megalomania or whatever it may be – deserves to be treated as a criminal.”

Other experts we interviewed include former international prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who says Putin is a war criminal “without a doubt”, Beth Van Schaack, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, who points out that many of the architects of this campaign of war crimes are in Russia and the only way to gain custody over them “is if they voluntarily leave Russia”, and lawyer François Zimeray, who sees no chance for the time being of prosecuting Russian crimes at the international level – “a tribunal organised by Ukraine itself, on the other hand, is fully legitimate”.

Part of the challenge of bringing Russian crimes to justice is the need for accuracy and clarity when it comes to definitions. To that end, my colleague Julia Crawford has written an explainer looking at the various international crimes and how they might apply to the Ukraine war. Questions she answers include: What are international crimes? What are war crimes? What are crimes against humanity? What is genocide?

Keystone / Hollaender

Sadly we’ve never found enough Swissness to write about Dolly Parton, Janis Joplin or Edgar Allan Poe – all of whom were born on January 19 – but we have devoted articles to author Patricia Highsmith and artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp (pictured).

Patricia Highsmith, the author of classic psychological thrillers such as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, was born today in Texas in 1921. She spent the last 14 years of her life in southern Switzerland, alone but not lonely. This article from 2021 looks at her time in Switzerland.

You’ve probably seen Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s face hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Born today in Davos in 1889, she appeared on the CHF50 note for about 20 years. As this article from 2014 explains, describing her as an artist is selling her seriously short: she was a painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect and dancer.