(Keystone/Alessandro della Valle)

Is Swiss neutrality being led astray? Switzerland's internal politics are heating up over moves to label Hamas a terrorist organisation and cut funding to UNRWA, the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees. As the country cosies up to Nato and debates bolstering its military budget at the expense of aid, critics warn that Switzerland risks losing its reputation for neutrality and humanitarian leadership.

💉PANDEMIC TALKS. An eleventh attempt at finalising an agreement to prepare the world to face future health crises is underway at the World Health Organization and set to last until Friday. While some hope the Mpox outbreak spreading across Africa may add much-needed impetus to the talks, old divisions stubbornly persist, and technicalities are further widening the gap.

🧠Memory jog: States push to finalise global health rules while parking pandemic treaty talks

✌️HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK TWO. Among the countries whose repressive regimes have earned them special focus at the council, which will be debated this week, are Venezuela, Syria, Burundi and Belarus.

Whereabouts unknown. A UN group of independent experts will examine this week 690 cases of enforced and involuntary disappearances reported across 30 countries and 19 by non-state actors.

Cash troubles. The group, set up by the now-defunct Human Rights Commission in 1980 to assist families in finding their missing loved ones and ensure states comply with their international obligations, is set to present its annual report to the Human Rights Council today.

In it, it lamented not being able to function properly due to the current liquidity crunch crippling the global organisation, noting that UN experts reporting to the Geneva-based body were facing “unprecedented challenges” and expressed its “serious ​​concern about its inability…to carry out the various tasks assigned to it”.

Call for backup. It recently joined other fellow experts from the UN and regional human rights authorities in urging for more support for victims who have been disappeared, with hundreds of thousands of people vanished during conflicts or periods of repression in at least 85 countries around the world.

Save the date. To raise awareness, the first-ever World Congress on Enforced Disappearances is set to be held in Geneva on 15 January 2025.

Sudan probe bid. Informal negotiations for a team of investigators to continue collecting evidence of violations in Sudan are on the schedule for Wednesday. We recently reported on the fact-finding mission’s scathing report, which may draw resistance from the government and its allies – it wouldn’t be the first time Gulf states and Egypt, which are involved in mediation efforts, try to derail the western-led bid.

📖Read more: Sudan’s unrelenting war: can the world move beyond half-measures?

– Kasmira Jefford and Michelle Langrand