Luxembourg Signs Strategic Partnership Funding Agreements with UN Organisations

On Friday 26 July 2024, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Xavier Bettel, paid a working visit to Geneva, Switzerland.

As reported by Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, this was an opportunity for Minister Bettel to meet with the leaders of a number of UN organisations and entities that are partners of Luxembourg's Development Cooperation and to reiterate the Grand Duchy's support for the United Nations system through the signing of two new strategic partnership frameworks.

Minister Bettel had a bilateral meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, at the end of which they both signed a first strategic partnership framework between Luxembourg and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Through this partnership, which covers a four-year period (2024-2027) and has a budget of €1.5 million per year, Luxembourg's Development Cooperation will provide "predictable and flexible" financial support to the OHCHR's mission, which is to combat the most serious human rights violations (both acute and chronic) around the world.

Minister Bettel welcomed the signing of the new partnership framework, stressing its importance in light of the action priorities of Luxembourg's Development Cooperation: "After supporting the OHCHR [with] financial support in recent years, I am pleased that we now have a framework that allows us to continue this support systematically for the coming years. Today's signature marks an important step in our partnership with the OHCHR and demonstrates our commitment to continue to place the strengthening of human rights at the heart of our external action. For me, it is clear that the protection of human rights is an antidote to the many crises facing humanity, provided that they are achieved for all people, everywhere."

Minister Bettel then also had a bilateral exchange with the Director of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), Sameer Chauhan. During this meeting, they signed a first strategic partnership framework between Luxembourg and UNICC, which is the UN body responsible for providing IT services and technical support to various UN agencies, departments and programmes.

Covering a period of five years for a total amount of €3.95 million, this strategic partnership provides, among other things, a contribution from the Grand Duchy to the UNICC cybersecurity fund, the objective of which is to strengthen cybersecurity measures within the UN system and its affiliated organisations. Also foreseen are the establishment of a UNICC presence and a data centre in Luxembourg, thus allowing UNICC to benefit from Luxembourg's expertise and technical capacities, and authorisation of access to Luxembourg's supercomputing capacities for the UN system, in order to strengthen advanced data processing and analytical capacities to effectively address complex global challenges.

The visit also included a working lunch with Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is one of Luxembourg's "most important and long-standing" humanitarian partners. Discussions focused on the urgent need to strengthen respect for the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, and international humanitarian law, as well as the protection of civilians in a world marked by an increasing number of conflicts. Minister Bettel reaffirmed Luxembourg's continued support for the ICRC in the face of these challenges.

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister also had his first working meeting with the Executive Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), David Harland. The meeting provided an opportunity to take stock of the HD's "discreet, impartial and independent" mediation activities in the search for peace in current global conflicts.