JUNES
(Jugend UNO Netzwerk Schweiz, Réseau suisse des jeunes pour l’ONU)

JUNES a national network which promotes cooperation amongst student-run organisations interested in the UN. After half a year of intense discussions and debates, the JUNES-network has been launched the 18th of October 2007 in Lucerne.

Two new networks for Switzerland: JUNES and UNO-Academia

JUNES is reality!

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.
On March 14th 2007, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) had invited different student associations to Bern, all of them concerned with UN matters. During a brain storm session the FDFA presented the idea of a national network, similar to an already existing German equivalent (JUNON). Convinced and inspired, the young representatives have arranged many meetings since that day, realized numerous ideas, plans and dreams and, last but not least, formed new friendships.
After all, JUNES was launched on October 18th 2007 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! (Members)
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.