François Wisard
Head of the Swiss Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 2004
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day)
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
Switzerland was the first country to establish a national IHRA advisory group, by bringing together representatives from teachers’ associations, Jewish NGOs, Sinti and Roma organizations, governmental departments and universities. 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.
