Delegation from

Swiss Confederation
Position Paper for the United Nations General Assembly
The agenda topics before the United Nations General Assembly are the following: (1) Preventing Youth
Radicalization and Rise of Extremism; and (2) Strengthening Protection and Assistance for Older Persons.
I. Preventing Youth Radicalization and Rise of Extremism
The threat posed by Terrorism has been an ever-intensifying issue even for the strongest of states. They
have rendered many developing countries to be more vulnerable to attacks and instability. With the issue
of Youth Radicalization, the scope of these extremists’ attacks continues to expand as their influence
reaches out to the easily swayed youth in countries in exchange for money, ideological fulfillment, or
convincingly altered perceptions on the states in which these youth live in. The creation of the United
Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre, established as part of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, has
allowed member states to effectively collaborate with a UN office in resolution of the threats posed by
terrorism. The international efforts committed through this Centre for Counter-Terrorism has been crucial
to the curbing of extremist presence and actions, especially in part to their efforts to radicalize the youth in
the states they exist in. In addition, the World Program Action for Youth back in 1995 has set the path for
the treatment and regard of the future of the youth and dangers which they are vulnerable to in their growth.
This program has allowed the UN to give sufficient focus to representative youth envoys, which have
become the voice of the global youth for years, as evidenced by the 25 th year celebration of the program
with the theme of “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding”, indicating an increase in the discourse between
state representatives, politicians, and the youth concerning global issues such as extremism.
The foreign policy of Switzerland on Extremism emphasizes the protection of youth, women, and the
international Geneva. The protection of youth and women in Switzerland is acted upon through effective
governance reliant upon mutual discourse on issues and participation in political processes, thereby them
part of making them an essential part of the decision-making that shapes the state of Switzerland. Beyond
that, the threat of extremism is undermined by the Swiss not only through establishment of armed defenses,
but specifically through the prioritization of ensuring good governance takes place in the judicial and
security sectors which handle the protection of the human rights and privileges of the citizens of
Switzerland. The rise of political support is an essential factor to the prevention of extremism from
spreading through the country, as support for the government would indicate that to spread information or
attempts at spreading a false perception on the government would be a difficult thing to prove. This is
because extremism feeds on dissatisfaction towards the state. In summary, the foreign policy of Switzerland
against Extremism focuses on the improvement of perception towards the local government and protection
of groups such as the women, youth, and the international Geneva.
Switzerland recommends that practices concerning good and just governance, effective and outspoken
protection and prioritization of vulnerable groups such as women and the youth, as well as the non-emphasis
on resolution through armed conflict against the rise of extremism and youth radicalization, should be
considered an applicable approach, especially to developed countries such as the US and Russia. This
approach entitles states to practices that improve satisfaction on political processes and governance
practices within the systems of a state, preventing extremism from becoming rampant due to civil unrest or
dissatisfaction.
 II. Strengthening Protection and Assistance for Older Persons
The development of technology and healthcare has allowed the lifespan of humans to reach an average of
about 60 years and over. With this in mind, as the population of the aged and old continues to increase, it
could create a new priority group to be considered in the face of increasing vulnerabilities and insecurities
in the world today. Thanks to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Division for Inclusive Social Development Ageing, the increasing population of elderly people in the world
are also given attention to. First established in 2002 through the Madrid International Plan of Action on
Ageing, this UNDESA Division on Ageing prioritizes the age-inclusive recognition of elderly and ageing
people as part of the population affected by these resolutions, and as such they ensure that the needs of the
elderly are meet and that their rights and privileges are given attention to in the resolution of social and
global security issues. They have emphasized health and economic inequalities experienced by the elderly,
as well as the importance of long-term care for these ageing people.
Switzerland is regarded as one of the best countries to grow old in and is even statistically known to have
the world’s longest life expectancy for men. Several issues faced by Switzerland when it comes to the
elderly is the increasing number of cases of Dementia, increasing costs of medicine and medication, and
the increasing need for people to care for the elderly. However, swiss politicians have recently taken into
consideration the issues faced by the elderly, such as the healthcare of the elderly and financial support for
them. The elderly is viewed in solidarity as a valuable member to society, believing that “there is a time for
everything”, to justify supporting the costs of care and pensions for the elderly. There is also an initiative
on creating an elderly care “bank”, where people voluntarily spend time to look after and care for the current
generation of elderly in exchange for depositing that time spent and allowing it to be used when they get
old for their own care provision.
Switzerland would recommend that the General Assembly prioritize firstly solving the current healthcare
issues in different developed countries such as Europe and the Americas, such as accessibility to people of
different economic standings and consistency in quality of care. This would first solve inequality across
ages in countries capable of providing better healthcare but are overwhelmed with the number of variables
due to the many insecurities they face as the “guns and butter” debate continue. Furthermore, to allow
healthcare to become accessible on different age cohorts will allow researchers to clearly identify which
the prevalent illnesses faced by different ages, thus allowing for the problems of the elderly to be identified
and given better attention to. In this intention, Switzerland recommends the creation or improvement of
current healthcare information systems to better manage and organize the data for use in identifying trends
of illnesses among different ages. For developing countries, non-governmental organizations that specialize
in projects that providing healthcare to countries with weak healthcare systems can work with Switzerland
and any supporting member state in the improvement of the quality of their practices, available
technologies, and financial support, for these countries to allocate their economies to industry as NGOs
supplement their healthcare vulnerabilities, especially on both the elderly and the youth, until these
countries become economically capable and no longer reliant on these NGOs to supplement their
healthcare.