The Founder's Vision
The CAFLISCH Foundation promotes knowledge, human dignity and culture as pillars of a peaceful world in which human dignity, the rule of law and cultural diversity are durably secured.
The Founders, Lucius and Dee Ann Caflisch, are committed to the teaching and development of Public International Law. They are concerned with issues of peace, global security, the independence of the judiciary and the history and development of languages; they share an interest in classical music and the visual arts.
Lucius Caflisch is emeritus professor of public international law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva; he was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and a member of the United Nations International Law Commission. He represented Switzerland in important international negotiations, such as those leading to the conclusion of the Law of the Sea Convention, the Ottawa Convention on the Ban of Anti-Personnel Mines, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the 1997 Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.
It is the Founders' wish that their commitment to public international law, including human rights law, be continued. The Foundation will therefore primarily support research and higher education in public international law in Switzerland and make a long-term contribution to the respect and development of that law. The Founders also wish to support specific projects and institutions that contribute to furthering peace and global security and to the effective implementation and development of humanitarian law, in particular to the protection of the victims of armed conflicts. Promoting the protection and regulation of water resources is equally related to the maintenance of peace: access to water may be a human right and thus be essential to security, development, human well-being and political stability.
The Founders firmly believe that the study of history and languages as well as the access to music and visual arts enhance the advancement of individuals and thus favour the development of society as a whole.
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