Heidi Tagliavini (born 1950) is a Swiss former

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

. She is noted for her service with

international aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...

and

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities, especially military ones, intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed w ...

missions; a 2003 profile in the monthly magazine of the ''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

'' called her "Switzerland's outstanding diplomat". She was charged with leading the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

investigation into the causes of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, and represented the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

in the 2015 negotiations about the

Minsk II The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. After a defe ...

agreement concerning the

war in Donbass The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when Russian paramilitaries seized several towns. Ukraine's military launched an operation ...

Life

Tagliavini was born in 1950 in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Career

After joining the Swiss diplomatic service in 1982, Tagliavini served in the Directorate of Political Affairs of the

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, , , , ), so named since 1979, is one of the seven Departments of the Swiss government federal administration of Switzerland, and corresponds in its range of tasks to the ministry of foreign affa ...

and was posted to

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. She was a member of the first

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

(OSCE) Assistance Group to

Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...

in 1995. In 1996, Tagliavini served as Minister and Deputy Head of Mission of the Swiss embassy in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. From 1998 to 1999, she was the Deputy Head of the

United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 858 on 24 August 1993 to verify compliance with a 27 July 1993 ceasefire agreement between the Republic of Georgia and forces ...

(Unomig). Returning to Switzerland in 1999, she was appointed head of Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy in the Department of Foreign Affairs. After a stint as Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

from 2000 to 2001, Tagliavini served as Swiss Ambassador to

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

from 2001 to 2002, and was asked by UN Secretary-General

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

to head

UNOMIG The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 858 on 24 August 1993 to verify compliance with a 27 July 1993 ceasefire agreement between the Republic of Georgia and forces ...

in 2002. She served in that position until 2006, when she returned to

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

to assume the position of deputy head of the Directorate of Political Affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs. In November 2008, the Swiss government agreed to the EU presidency's request to have Tagliavini lead the EU investigation into the chain of events leading to the 2008

Russo-Georgian War The August 2008 Russo-Georgian War, also known as the Russian invasion of Georgia,Occasionally, the war is also referred to by other names, such as the Five-Day War and August War. was a war waged against Georgia by the Russian Federation and the ...

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

and

South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

. The independent international fact-finding mission headed by Tagliavini was given a budget of €1.6 million. Its report was published on 30 September 2009. The final report, published on September 30, concluded that Georgia had started the war, but that both sides were responsible for the escalation of the conflict.

Role in the Ukraine crisis

Tagliavini was until June 2015 a member of the

Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine Trilateral is something having three sides or perspectives and may refer to: * Triangle, a geometric figure with three sides and three vertices. The synonym ''trilateral'' emphasizes a definition in terms of sides rather than vertices. *The Trilat ...

, which was organized to attempt a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.Helene Fouquet, Ilya Arkhipov and Daryna Krasnolutska (February 12, 2015)
The Unsung Heroine of Minsk Talks
''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

''. The other members of the council were former President

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma (, ; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine, serving from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. The only president of Ukraine to serve two terms, his presidency was marked by demo ...

of Ukraine, and Russia's ambassador to Ukraine,

Mikhail Zurabov Mikhail Yuryevich Zurabov (, ) is a Russian politician. He was the ambassador of Russia to UkraineOSCE Election Observation Mission during the

2010 Ukrainian presidential election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

s. She continued to represent the OSCE in the negotiations concerning the

war in Ukraine The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

in 2014, including with respect to the 2015

agreement. In July 2014, when

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile system, Bu ...

was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine, Tagliavini negotiated a deal between Ukraine and the separatists to allow international investigators into the area to collect remains and wreckage. In February 2015, Tagliavini was among the signatories of the

agreement, alongside Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma, Russia's Mikhail Zurabov as well as

Alexander Zakharchenko Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko (26 June 1976 – 31 August 2018) was a Ukrainian separatist leader who was the Russia-installed head of state and prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, a self-proclaimed state and Russian-backed ...

and

Igor Plotnitsky Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky (born 25 June 1964) is a former Ukrainian separatist leader who served as the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in eastern Ukraine, from 14 August 2014 to 24 November 2017. He was born 26 June ...

representing the rebels in east Ukraine. Later in 2015, Tagliavini resigned from the Swiss diplomatic service.

Publications

Tagliavini co-published a book, ''The Caucasus - Defence of the Future'' (2001), in which she recounts her Chechnya experiences. An amateur photographer, she is also the author of ''Zeichen der Zerstörung'',. a book featuring her photographs of war-torn Chechnya.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tagliavini, Heidi People from Basel-Stadt 1950 births Living people Ambassadors of Switzerland to Bosnia and Herzegovina Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Swiss women diplomats Swiss women ambassadors