Support of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC)

Switzerland provides the Secretariat of the IHFFC. In that capacity, Switzerland organized a diplomatic conference on 8 December 2016 in order to elect the 15 members of the IHFFC.

Switzerland supported several visits of the members of the IHFFC in various countries and mentioned the IHFFC in a statement made during the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, encouraging States to recognize the competence of the Commission.

In February 2017, Switzerland also organized a briefing and a reception on the occasion of the annual meeting of the IHFFC, in order to encourage the States to make use of the services of the Commission, respectively to consent to its intervention.

In its capacity as Secretariat of the IHFFC, Switzerland provided a substantial support to the Commission with regard to the preparation of the independent forensic investigation in relation to the incident of 23 April 2017 that occurred in Pryshyb (Ukraine) and caused the death of a paramedic and the injury of two monitors of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM). Moreover, Switzerland seized the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the two Additional Protocols I and II to encourage States having not yet done so to join the APs. At the same occasion, Switzerland encouraged these States to recognise the competence of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission by recalling that this recognition can be made by depositing a declaration to that effect with Switzerland, the Depositary State of Additional Protocol I.