TFF Associate: Lea Suter, Switzerland

Latest work experiences

Co-founding president of the Forum of a Culture of Peace / Forum für Friedenskultur in Switzerland (founded Nov. 2020).

UN Association Switzerland (GSUN) – Secretary-General 09.‘18 – now
Establish and manage a professional secretariat for GSUN, a Swiss non-profit association whose mission is to provide a platform to foster the dialogue between Swiss civil society and International Geneva, to promote the UN values and multilateralism and to discuss the role of Switzerland in global governance. UNA Switzerland is part of the World Federation of UN Associations (WFUNA).

• elaborating annual strategic plans and thematic projects
• developing funding proposals and financial strategies
• developing and implementing communication strategies
• developing and maintaining partnerships and networks
• working with various event formats increasing engagement and inclusivity
• establishing administrative procedures and optimizing processes, including data and knowledge management.

PeacePrints – Peace Reporter 01.‘17 – now
“Stories of peace from places of war”
Produce and publish in-depth stories about local peacebuilders in post-conflict regions and their solutions in bridging community divides. PeacePrints

• travelling in (post-) conflict areas: Lebanon, Mali, Kosovo, Korea, Myanmar, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories, Cyprus, Ukraine, Iraq, Rwanda
• highlighting creative local civilian reconciliation initiatives and how the arts can contribute to peacebuilding
• writing, photography, video making
• building and maintaining a webpage and managing communication
• public speaking: TedX Zürich 2018
• visual communication at the Face to Face meeting of the Conflict and Human Rights Network of the Swiss Agency For Development and Cooperation 2019
• designing and moderating a 5 hours harvesting workshop to share and develop a tool kit for the Swiss Foreign Ministry.

United Nations Office, Geneva – Project Manager Open Day 05.‘17 – 10.‘17
Overall coordination of the Open Day of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The goal of this highly prestigious one-day event is to promote the values of the UN to a wide audience (15‘000 visitors).

• coordinating with all UN divisions, agencies, (40) member States,
International Organizations & NGOs (together 35)
• programming and organizing around 80 activities in 12 conference rooms,
4 buildings and 46 hectares-park
• managing complex security measures on highly secured territory
• organizing protocol and daily schedule for the UN Director-General
• creating and implementing a concept of a large-scale interactive exhibition on the Sustainable Development Goals.

foraus – Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy – Vice Director 03.‘14 – 12.‘16
Establishing the Geneva office of foraus, a grassroots think tank
which generates – with the help of a large network of young professionals –
recommendations for Swiss foreign policy decision-makers.

• developing strategies for organizational development and large-scale projects
• developing communications strategy and new partnerships
• leading a team & developing community-building measures (>1000 volunteers)
• organizing and facilitating creative high-level meetings
• managing various projects incl. monitoring, evaluation and reporting to the Foreign Ministry of Switzerland
• developing new projects like the Think Tank Hub, a research programme
„Global Governance“, a winter school, an exchange programme with the
US, and a database of think tanks all over the world.

United Nations Office, Geneva – Cultural Coordinator 03.‘11 – 03.‘14
The UN Outreach and Cultural Diplomacy Unit invites UN Member States to
organize jointly cultural activities in the Palais des Nations (UN Geneva) to
strengthen multilateral relations.

• organizing 80-100 cultural events per year including concerts,
exhibitions, performances, receptions
• providing client service to approx. 70 countries and 30 international organisations per year
• creating graphic designs (invitations, posters)
• drafting speeches and dealing with VIPs including Heads of Governments
• developing outreach strategies, reports and statistics
• managing a small multidisciplinary team and train interns.

University

2009 – 2011
Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany & University of Moscow
(RGGU)
• Master of Intercultural Transfer Studies: Russia-Germany
2004 – 2007
University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
• Bachelor of Arts, German and Russian Studies.

Trainings

Multitrack Peace Mediation
inmedio: 2021, ongoing.

Peacebuilding
swisspeace
• Peace Mediation and National Dialogue (Jan, 2020)
United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington (5 Moocs)
• Designing Peacebuilding Strategies, Mediation, Evaluation (2018)

Dialogue
Collaboratio Helvetica
• Dialogue Facilitation (2020 tbc)
Initiatives of Change, Caux
• Inter-religious Dialogue (2018)
• Non-violent Communication (2018)
• Group Facilitation Methods (2016)

Nexus Creativity & Politics
Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Geneva & USIP, Washington
• Media And The Arts For Peace (Mooc, Jan 2018)
• Creative Diplomacy (Sep 2016) Institute For Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin
• Cultural Diplomacy by the Arts, Music and Cinema (Feb 2016)

Journalism

MAZ – Swiss Academy for Journalism, Lucerne
• Journalism – How to make a multi-media portrait (Sep 16)
• Visual Communication – Storytelling through video (Jul 15)

Other activites

• Meditation, yoga, ski touring, swimming in mountain lakes, reading, baking (also for team events…)
• Member of Swiss Peace Council, Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Frauen für den Frieden, Zero Waste Switzerland, vorwärts beo, Swiss Alpine Club.

In summary…

Relevant Experience
strategic design, community
building, knowledge
management, large-scale project
management, agenda 2030,
peacebuilding, conflict sensitivity,
travelling in fragile regions,
ideation processes, co-creative
formats, communication,
storytelling, dialogue
facilitation, interconnected
thinking, solution-oriented

Languages
Conversational: German, English, Russian and French
Basics: Spanish

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Paul McCartney’sbiography till 2003

1942James Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool on June 18th. 1956Paul writes his first song, I Lost My Little Girl. 1957Paul meets John Lennon at St. Peter’s Church Fete, Woolton, Liverpool. He joins his first group, The Quarrymen and performs in his first gig at The New Clubmoor Hall, Liverpool, on October 18th. 1960Formation of The Beatles, who play residencies in Hamburg and at The Cavern in Liverpool. 1961First Beatles recordings issued in Germany, as the backing group for Tony Sheridan. 1962The first Beatles Parlophone recording, Love Me Do, reaches number 17 in the British charts. 1963The birth of Beatlemania. Please Please Me gives the group their first British Number 1. She Loves You cements their success. Please Please Me and With The Beatles albums released. 1964First triumphant American tour. The Beatles perform at the Royal Command Performance and release their first film, A Hard Day’s Night. Their single I...

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War Criminals Are on the Run

By JONATHAN POWER August 16, 2000 LONDON – Remember the summer of ’98? In the sweltering, torpid heat of a Roman august, charged with exhaust fumes, the international community gave its overwhelming approval to the establishment of an International Criminal Court that will enable those accused of “crimes against humanity” to be tried and, if convicted, sentenced. Only seven nations opposed or abstained from the motion, including Israel, China, India and the U.S.A. where the Pentagon had successfully waged bureaucratic guerrilla war to undermine the initially sympathetic stance of President Bill Clinton. Two years on we can now see what an epochal event that was. In a the stroke of 120 pens it changed the climate on political thuggery. After numerous half-starts and false starts ever since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that convicted the war criminals of the Second World War, the world at last had agreed en masse a common...

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Back to an out-of-the-wayBrazilian village

By Jonathan Power April 8th 2004 LONDON – There is a widely held opinion abroad that Brazil never had the chance of profoundly changing for the better- shedding its widespread poverty and dire income distribution- until Lula (President Luiz Inácio da Silva) came along last year. This is not entirely false, but neither is it entirely true. Brazil has long made a kind of progress- in the last century it was second only to Taiwan as the fastest growing economy in the world- but it has been appallingly uneven. Part of the story of contemporary Brazil is clear to the eye in this small village of 7,000 people in the arid north east, along with the Amazon the poorest part of this vast country. Twenty five years or so ago I used to come to Pilõezinhos regularly when I had a close friend living here, Valéria Rezende, a radical, grass roots-stirring...

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Archive 1986 - 2017

Arabisk press efterLibanon-kriget

“En dag som berättigar till fest”, utropade den London-baserade al-Quds al-Arabi efter FN:s eldupphörresolution, “eftersom detta är första gången som Israel accepterar ett FN-beslut från en position som besegrad och inte som segrare”. Att ett arabisk-israeliskt krig för en gångs skull slutat med arabisk seger, är en helt dominerade åsikt i arabiska medier. Al-Quds al-Arabi tillåter sig att drömma om att det israeliska nederlaget skall leda till massflykt från Israel. Men i nästa andetag påminner tidningen om att Israel aldrig brukar genomföra sina internationella åtaganden och varnar för att förlorarna, liksom tidigare, kan hämnas genom att provocera fram inbördeskrig i Libanon. Med tanke på de otaliga massmediala vittnesmålen om det libanesiska folkets eniga motståndskraft förefaller risken för inre stridigheter i det sargade landet just nu liten. Men visst kan man urskilja nyansskillnader i libanesiska tidningar. Vänsterorganet al-Safir uppfattar FN-resolutionen som en komplott i syfte att rädda Israel från ännu större...

Media

Greenland & Nuuk 2005

Greenland – the world’s largest island, a continent of its own with only 57.000 inhabitants. I visited it for the first time in May 2005. I flew across the inland ice to Nuuk, the tiny capital with some 14.000 inhabitants. I was overwhelmed by the pride and kindness of everyone I met as well as by the unique natural beauty. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions during my ten-day stay I could get nowhere else but Nuuk. Fortunately, however, among those I met was Gitte Arvegaard, a Danish lawyer and negotiator employed by the local government, Greenland Home Rule. She turned out to be an enthusiastic photographer with a lot of pictures taken during various trips around Greenland. So this Greeland series is the result of our cooperative effort. We both hope you enjoy it and are stimulated to visit Greenland – about which you may read more here. Finally, if you want to...

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Paul McCartney’s Poem for TFF

Jan Oberg’s storyof how he met Sir Paul Liverpool – where else to meet Paul McCartney? Paul’s old class mate and TFF Associate, Jonathan Power introduced me to Paul McCartney in Liverpool at an informal reception. It was held at what used to be their school, now the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and we were there to celebrate that Jonathan had written Amnesty International’s 40th Anniversary book. This happy event for “righting wrongs and writing songs” gave me an opportunity to meet Paul and tell him about TFF and get straight to the matter: would he consider making a donation in support of our work for peace? While I was probably the only one with such a wish that day, I was certainly not the only one who wanted to shake hands and talk with him. In the last minutes before Paul was to leave, Jonathan brought us together and we got about three...