Heidi Tagliavini

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Heidi Tagliavini (2015)

Heidi Tagliavini (* 1950 in Basel ) is a Swiss diplomat . She has been in the diplomatic service of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) since 1982 and is internationally known as the head of sensitive missions in international aid and peacekeeping. As the EU's special envoy, the “outstanding diplomat of Switzerland” examined the reasons for the war between Russia and Georgia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and wrote the Tagliavini report named after her. In June 2014 she became the OSCE Representative for Ukraine ; she resigned from this office on June 6, 2015.

Life

Heidi Tagliavini was born in Basel in 1950. Her father is an architect with Italian roots, her mother a painter from the Lucerne patriciate . Her cousins ​​are the State Secretary Franz Blankart and the economist Charles B. Blankart . She grew up as the second oldest of four siblings and attended schools in Basel and Baselland . She completed her studies in Romance and Russian studies in Geneva and Moscow with a licentiate in philology. In Geneva she was also an assistant for Russian literature. Today Tagliavini speaks eight languages ​​and conducts negotiations in Russia , Chechnya and Georgia without an interpreter in Russian. At the Geneva summit conference (1985) between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev , she spontaneously translated from Russian for the then Swiss Federal President Kurt Furgler .

Career

After twelve years, Heidi Tagliavini left Geneva and moved to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in 1982 , where she was first employed as a trainee in Bern and Lima . In 1984 she returned to Bern and was assigned to the Political Secretariat as a diplomatic assistant. In 1989 she was transferred to Moscow , where she was appointed counselor in 1992. In the same year she was transferred to The Hague as an embassy counselor and first employee of the head of mission .

When she was sent to Chechnya for the first time in April 1995 as the only woman in a six-person assistance group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), it was the beginning of her career as a crisis diplomat. Tagliavini took photos of the suffering of the population she saw in the destroyed capital Grozny , and published her photos in the illustrated book Signs of Destruction .

In 1996 she became Deputy Head of the Mission of the Swiss Embassy in Moscow , and from March 1998 to 1999 Deputy Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG with the rank of Ambassador). She was only the second woman accepted by the UN to head a peace-keeping mission.

After her return to Switzerland in 1999, Tagliavini became head of Political Department IV (Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs) in the FDFA.

After working for one year as Personal Representative for the Caucasus of the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship in 2000, Tagliavini was appointed Swiss Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2001 to 2002. In 2002, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Heidi Tagliavini to head the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia . In 2006 she returned to Bern as Deputy Head of the Directorate for Political Affairs and Deputy State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry. From late 2009 to early 2010, Tagliavini headed the OSCE election observation mission during the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections.

The Tagliavini report

With its decision of December 2, 2008, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union launched an independent international investigation to deal with the conflict that broke out in Georgia in August 2008 and, in consultation with the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, appointed Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini as head of this mission.

The independent international investigation mission presented the report to the EU Council on September 30, 2009. The Tagliavini report concluded that Georgia had probably triggered the larger armed conflict in the August conflict of 2008 , but that all sides, Russia as well as Georgia, and the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, are responsible for the escalation of the conflict. The commission could not find any evidence to support Georgian claims of previous Russian invasion. According to the fact-finding mission, both Georgia and Russia acted in breach of international law in this conflict. In accordance with its mandate, the more than 1000-page report goes into detail on the causes and the context of the conflict and, with its detailed treatment of international law, humanitarian and human rights issues, sets new standards in highly topical political issues. The report also publishes all the materials submitted by the parties for the investigation.

Ukraine Representative of the OSCE

Tagliavini has been an agent in Ukraine since the beginning of June 2014. When asked about the changes in the conflict in August, she said: «The format of the contact group with Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE has been fixed since June and cannot be changed unilaterally. Opinions differ on the question of whether Russia is also a party to the conflict. From the point of view of the OSCE, a permanent settlement to settle the conflict requires the cooperation and ultimately also the consent of Russia. " On September 2, 2014, as the OSCE Representative for Ukraine, she led the talks of the OSCE Contact Group in Minsk , which were preparing the ceasefire of September 5, 2014 between Ukraine and the irregular units of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic . On September 5, 2014, they, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma , rebel leader Alexander Sakharchenko , Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and rebel leader Igor Plotnitsky announced a ceasefire in Minsk . The ceasefire was repeatedly violated at strategic points and the "central point" of monitoring the border between Ukraine and Russia had not yet been tackled with two small exceptions at two border posts. "The surveillance of the border by the OSCE is a basic requirement for the implementation of the ceasefire on the line of contact between the forces of the Ukrainian government and the separatists within the country." The so-called elections held by the separatists on November 2nd were a clear violation against the provisions of the Minsk Agreement specially agreed for elections. "

According to initial plans, Tagliavini should continue to mediate after the OSCE chairmanship has changed to Serbia. It played a key role in the 13-point ceasefire plan for Ukraine negotiated in Minsk in February 2015. However, on June 5, 2015, Swiss television (SRF) reported that Ambassador Tagliavini wished “to end her work in the near future”. Heidi Tagliavini was then replaced as chief negotiator by the Austrian UN ambassador in New York, Martin Sajdik . The reason assumed by a Russian news portal was that Tagliavini wanted to implement the binding Minsk II agreement and therefore not take part in any new negotiations on further changes ("Minsk III").

Awards

Works

  • Signs of destruction. The other view - reminiscences from Chechnya (illustrated book). Bern: Benteli, 1997. ISBN 978-3-7165-1144-2
  • Caucasus - defense of the future. 24 authors in search of peace . Vienna-Bozen: Folio, 2001. ISBN 978-3-85256-161-5

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Dietrich: Madame Courage. In: NZZ Folio . September 2003, accessed January 16, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Welt am Sonntag May 17, 2015, p. 9: The main actress
  3. ^ EDA press service: Appointments in the EDA . Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. March 23, 2006. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  4. ↑ EDA press service: Appointment of Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini as personal representative of the OSCE Chairman -in-Office for missions in the Caucasus . Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. January 13, 2000. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  5. ↑ EDA press service: Kofi Annan appoints a Swiss woman as special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Georgia . Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. May 24, 2002. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  6. ^ FDFA press service: Heidi Tagliavini appointed Deputy Political Director in the FDFA Political Directorate . Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. March 23, 2006. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  7. ↑ The Woman for Eastern Europe , Tages-Anzeiger, June 25, 2014
  8. ↑ "I think women are superior when it comes to grasping emotions" , Tages-Anzeiger, November 24, 2014
  9. ↑ Burkhalter wants to talk NATO into conscience. Tagesanzeiger website, accessed September 8, 2014 .
  10. ^ Ukraine negotiations in Minsk. NZZ website, accessed on September 8, 2014 .
  11. ^ The Minsk Agreement , Tagesschau.de, November 4, 2014
  12. ↑ "You have to keep collecting the hotheads" , Tages-Anzeiger, December 4, 2014
  13. ↑ Tagliavini stays, although Burkhalter leaves , Tages-Anzeiger, December 17, 2014
  14. ↑ http://www.blick.ch/news/diplomatin-heidi-tagliavini-ist-die-heldin-von-minsk-die-schweizer-putin-versteherin-id3480254.html , Blick, accessed on February 12, 2015
  15. ↑ http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bloomberg/unsung-heroine-of-minsk-talks-is-swiss-diplomat-trusted-by-putin/41271334
  16. ↑ Top diplomat new OSCE-Ukraine special envoy , Krone.at. June 22, 2015
  17. ↑ A bad sign? Ukraine's OSCE Representative has had enough , Sputnik , June 8, 2015
  18. ↑ Seven honorary doctorates at the Dies Academicus of the University of Basel as part of the 550 year celebrations , press release, in: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft from November 26, 2010, accessed on December 10, 2010
  19. ↑ ISHR human rights prize awarded to Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini . In: Menschenrechte , Volume 2014, Issue 1, p. 14.
  20. ↑ [1] , additional text.
personal data
SURNAME Tagliavini, Heidi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel