Centre of protestantisme, the city is host for several UN organisations, after being the host of the former Society of Nations.

The Red Cross (following the idea of the Genevois Henry Dunant and of the committee chaired by general Guillaume-Henri Dufour) has its headquarters in the city. The organisation set up several Geneva Conventions (1864, 1906, 1929 and 1949), related to the right of injured soldiers and war prisoners. The Geneva Conference (1954) lead to the agreement after the Indochine and the share of Vietnam in two separate republics.

Switzerland

As a consequence of the civil war, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution from 1848. In 1891 the constitution was changed to introduce a high degree of direct democracy.

Switzerland is divided into 23 cantons and 6 semi-cantons, with several, even hundreds of communes. Swiss cantons are relatively autonomous (each canton has its own constitution), and from legal, financial and administrative viewpoints, they have their own parliament (called Grand Conseil in the French speaking part).

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The legislative power comes from the Federal assembly, made up of two chambers: the National Council (200 members representing the citizens) and the Council of States (46 members represneting cantons). Members of both houses serve for 4 years and have equal powers in all respects, including the right to introduce legislation. Through referenda (popular initiative), citizens may challenge any law voted by federal parliament and through initiatives introduce amendments to the federal constitution, making Switzerland a semi-direct democracy (the signatures of 100,000 voters must be collected to submit an amendment).

The top executive body and collective Head of State is the Federal Council, a collegial body of seven members who are elected for 4 years by the Federal Assembly. The government works most of the time with consensus agreement. The President of the Confederation - assuming special representative functions - is elected from the seven for a one-year term.

Women were granted the right to vote in the first cantons in 1959, at the federal level in 1971... but we needed to wait until 1999 to see that right extended to the very last canton, Appenzell.

Since its rejection in 1992 after a referendum, Switzerland has no longer submited any demand for being integrated into the European Economic Area. However the helevetic law has changed gradually to get closer to the one of the European Union and numerous bilateral agreements have been signed. Since Austria joined the EU in 1995, Switzerland is now surrounded by member countries of the EU. The 5th June 2005, Swiss have accepted to ratify the Schengen treaty about freedom of movements within Europe, after a referendum was organised.

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