10.01.2005 - Comunicado de prensa
UN and Donor Conference in Geneva: Help for other crises, besides the tsunami disaster

It will be an important day at the Geneva UN headquarters, an important day also for Switzerland's cooperation with the international community facing the world's crises: the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to hold a ministerial conference on the Asia tsunami disaster in the afternoon of 11 January. Jan Egeland, UN Under Secretary-General and head of OCHA will preside the conference; Swiss Federal Councillor and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey will lead the Swiss delegation, with Walter Fust and Toni Frisch  among the representatives of the SDC.

Forgotten crises and conflicts will receive particular attention on 11 January in the morning: at 10 am, delegations from UN member states, UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements as well as NGO's will gather for the kick-off of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP Launch). The Humanitarian Appeal was launched last November by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with calls for international aid on behalf of 14 regions and countries – amongst them are Africa, the Middle East, Caucasus - where, due to crises of various origins, populations are dependent on aid. The SDC's Director General Walter Fust, is to lead the Swiss delegation for this meeting and will call attention to what is known as the "media effect": as soon as the international TV networks turn their cameras away from the humanitarian crises in Sudan, Uganda, Angola, East Congo or the Palestinian occupied territories for example, the risk is high that they also lose the attention of the donor community. However justified and crucial the needs of the victims of the tsunami disaster, the victims of other crises and conflicts must not be forgotten. 

For further information:
SDC Media and Communication, Phone 031 322 31 09