The (short) history of JUNES

14.5.07: Brainstorming Session
This project is still at the very beginning, since it has been initiated by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) the 14th of May 2007. At this first conference at the University of Bern, students organisations from different Swiss universities like Youth Rep, GIMUN but also debating groups dealing with UN related topics met in order to evaluate the possibilities and advantages of such a national network. At the same time main goals were shaped by the attending associations and the help of Elisabeth Frey, guest speaker from the Youth UN-Network Germany (JUNON).

The following points were decided to be the main goals of JUNES:
• Exchange of information and knowledge between JUNES members
• Get more importance and higher recognition in public in order to facilitate the seek for guest speakers and sponsors
• Possibility to question young people’s opinion for UN-relevant topics
• Sensitise the civil population for UN-topics

Also the creation of two working groups has been decided: one dealing with the question of the legal status of the network and the other working on the construction of an official homepage.

21.7.07: Ideas turn into a concrete structure
By the next meeting organised by Mosaïque the 21st of July 2007 in Lausanne, the two established working groups presented their work done so far. In order to reduce bureaucracy to a minimum and to be as flexible as possible the collaboration shall be based on cooperation between associations.
As sort of legal basis serves a Charter which states that the signatory associations “express their will to cooperate and seek to develop common reflections and actions. The members facilitate the spread of information, the sharing of equipment and other services. They avoid competition and seek coordination which can be achieved by the grouping of part of their capacities.”

For the elaboration of the Charter a new working group has been created.
As members, associations in a large sense of the term (groups, no single persons) shall be admitted whether they are dealing with the UN and are representing the youth.
Further JUNES shall at least meet once a year with the main purposes to lecture and accept the annual report, decide to launch new projects, modify the charter and nominate the people in charge for the year to come (organisation annual conference, responsible homepage, etc).
The homepage will play a key role for the information flow between the associations but also for the presentation to the public of the work done by the JUNES members. Different options how to build up the homepage have been checked and it is only a question of time until JUNES will be online.

18.10.07: The official launch: Two new networks for Switzerland: JUNES and UNO-Academia
18th of October 2007: A group of seven people meets early in the morning at the University of Lucerne in order to prepare the founding session of the Youth United Nations Network Switzerland (Jugend UNO-Netzwerk Schweiz, JUNES). This network will link groups of young people from all over Switzerland who share an interest in the UN.
JUNES was launched this day in the presence of the Ambassador from the FDFA`s UN Coordination Office, Benno Laggner, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Lucerne, Dr. Sandra Lavenex. After a recapitulation of the foregone activities, the JUNES Charter was presented together with its internet platform and prospective activities. Then, the representatives of the diverse organisations signed the Charter, some of them even with real blood!
The NMUN group from Berne has been elected to take the presidency and the charge of the secretariat until the next general assembly in autumn 2008.

Research network: UNO Academia
After the successful launch of JUNES, yet another network was born that day: UNO Academia. Also initiated by the FDFA, this network was created with the purpose of benefiting from possible synergies between universities, international organisations in Switzerland and the FDFA. This link between political theory and political reality can be described as a form of applied research. JUNES and UNO Academia will try to collaborate in the future.
Whilst the constitutive assembly took place behind closed doors, the public part of the second launch was underlined by a speech of the current Swiss President and Foreign Minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey. This was followed by an interesting and emotional panel discussion with Pascale Bruderer (National Councillor), Peter Maurer (Swiss Ambassador at the UN Office in New York), Dr. Daniel Thürer (Professor of International Law at Zurich University) and several others.

One day - two new networks, certainly not a bad result. Yet, output and efficiency of any network depend primarily on its members. Their future effort and enthusiasm will show whether this initiative is just another shooting star, or whether its members will create a milky way on the Swiss political sky.