Mô Bleeker
Head of the Swiss Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 2004
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Special Envoy Mô Bleeker (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs) – Head of Delegation
Bernard Wicht (Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education) – Deputy Head of Delegation
Sabina Brändli (Zurich University of Teacher Education) – Education Working Group
Daniel Gerson (Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Bern) – Academic Working Group
Stéphane Laederich (Executive Director of the Rroma Foundation) – Committee on the Genocide of the Roma
Gregor Spuhler (Archives for Contemporary History, ETH Zurich) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Switzerland has established a national IHRA advisory group since 2004, bringing together representatives from teachers’ associations, Jewish, Sinti and Roma organizations, governmental departments and academia. The underlying idea was to promote the implementation of the Stockholm Declaration and the goals of the IHRA in civil society. This combined top-down/ bottom-up approach turned out to be particularly successful in a multilingual and federalist country. Teamwork and diversity are Switzerland’s strengths.
Latest News
On 4 June 2021, the Swiss Federal Council adopted the Report about the Working Definition of Antisemitism Developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (in German, Executive Summary in English).
The Federal Council's report was based on the Evaluation Report on Federal, Cantonal, and Communal Measures to Combat Antsemitism (in German, September 2020) and this legal analysis of the IHRA working definition (in English, November 2020). It was prepared by a working group led by the Federal Department of Home Affairs (Service for Combating Racism), in consultation with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) and other experts.
More information can be found in this press release (in English, German, French, Italian).
An overview of all reports can be found on this page.
Further information
Dossier Tag des Gedenkens an den Holocaust und der Verhütung von Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit
Dossier Journée de la Mémoire de l’Holocauste et de la prévention des crimes contre l’humanité
Dossier Giornata della Memoria dell’Olocausto e della prevenzione dei crimini contro l'umanità
Politorbis: Magazine on Swiss foreign policy
Politorbis Nr. 47: Genocide Prevention
Politorbis Nr. 50: Dealing with the Past
Politorbis Nr. 68: Preventing atrocities; towards new paradigms?