A project submitted by the Universities of Bern, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Zurich, in association with the Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch, the University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland (PHZ) and Humanrights.ch (MERS) has won a federal contract as a Swiss Competence Centre for Human Rights. The Centre will begin its work in 2011.

High-ranking representatives from 46 countries and the EU met in Geneva on 2 and 3 September 2010 for an informal exchange on the financing of climate action. The dialogue was chaired by Swiss Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa. Both praised the constructive atmosphere at the talks in preparation for the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun.

Together with ministers and senior representatives from eleven states who met in Geneva on 3 september 2010, Moritz Leuenberger launched an appeal for a new policy on biodiversity. The appeal, which is directed at world leaders, aims to encourage the states to do more for biodiversity in advance of the international conference on biodiversity to be held in Nagoya, Japan in October.

The Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan is to join the Swiss constituency in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The two countries came to this agreement in a Memorandum of Understanding. In addition, Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz and his Kazakh counterpart, Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev, signed a revised double taxation agreement (DTA) in accordance with the OECD standard.