ICC Switzerland informs you during these difficult times on ICC activities to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
ICC Headquarters
On Thursday, ICC Chair Paul Polman and John Denton wrote an open letter to the Saudi G20 Presidency to call for immediate and coordinated global action to ensure access to essential medical supplies, scale public health financing to tackle COVID-19 and restore confidence and stability in the global economy. A media release covering the call to action for G20 leaders has been published.
In addition to this, ICC has reached an unprecedented agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to mobilise our ICC private sector network to help fight the pandemic.
The WHO anticipates a need of $675 million through April alone for preparedness and response efforts. To help meet this funding gap, the WHO has created a new COVID-10 Solidarity Response Fund, the first-of-its-kind fund for companies, foundations and individuals to donate to WHO’s global response to the ongoing pandemic.
Contributions to this fund from the ICC network could go a long way to ensuring patients get the care they need and frontline workers get supplies and information – especially in the poorest countries.
ICC and the WHO have developed a statement that has been published today. Key elements will include:
- Disseminating the latest, expert advice to businesses;
- Forging collaboration between the private sector, UN and WHO country teams; and
- Providing business insights to help international COVID19 crisis management efforts.
ICC has also issued, in partnership with the New England Complexity Science Institute, a first set of considerations for businesses in how best to protect their employees, customers and stakeholders.
ICC Court of Arbitration
The Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and ICC International Centre for ADR have issued an urgent communication to users, arbitrators and other neutrals:
Over the past two months and as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to unfold worldwide, the safety of our staff and business continuity have been – and remain – our top priorities.
In this regard, we wish to advise you of the following:
A. Current status
1. All offices of the Secretariat of the ICC Court and the ICC ADR Centre are operational.
2. Staff members are healthy and working remotely via mobile posts. Special arrangements have been put in place and will likely remain in force for the immediate future.
B. General rule
1. We strongly advise that all your communications with the Secretariat of the ICC Court/ICC ADR Centre be conducted by email.
2. The Secretariat of the ICC Court/ICC ADR Centre are equally observing the same rule for case management purposes and any other activity.
We also urge you to observe the following steps which we consider essential in maintaining operational stability:
C. New requests for arbitration/ADR
1. Requests for arbitration (including pertinent exhibits) should be filed with the Secretariat by email at this address. Further information and additional contact details are provided here.
2. Applications for emergency arbitrator (including pertinent exhibits) should be filed with the Secretariat by email at this address. Further information and additional contact details are provided here.
3. Requests in other ADR proceedings (including pertinent exhibits) should be filed with the ADR Centre by email at this address. Further information and additional contact details are provided here.
D. Pending proceedings
1. If you need to send any correspondence (including awards and ADR decisions) in pending proceedings by courier or post to us, it is important that you promptly inform your case management team ahead of dispatch.
2. We welcome your queries and comments with regard to the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on hearings and other meetings. You may contact your case management team at any time.
3. Hearings and other meetings scheduled to take place at the ICC Hearing Centre in Paris until 13 April 2020 have been postponed or cancelled. For information on future bookings, please contact the ICC Hearing Centre at this address.
Effects on re-exportation/return of ATA carnet goods from restricted zones
The ICC ATA Carnet Secretariat is watching with concern reports of the outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and its potential impact to ATA Carnet holders and National Guaranteeing Associations (NGA). ICC is now in close contact with the World Customs Organization (WCO) to address the matter and ICC is now preparing an appealing letter that will be given to WCO in order to get a recommendation. For Switzerland you can find the latest announcements here: http://www.ataswiss.org/.
Office ICC Switzerland
We work in home office now and can be reached by phone and email during ordinary business hours. Arbitration cases (proposals for arbitrators) will be handled by email. We remember, that cases have to be filed at the Court office in Paris, not with ICCSwitzerland. Orders for physical Publication orders will be processed once a week.
ICC Commissions Meetings
They are maintained in general and organized in the form of video conferences or conference calls.
We will keep you updated by mail, on our website and in our social media channels regularly.
We wish you and your families all the best during this challenging period.
