Damaris Carnal

Damaris Carnal is the Deputy Head of Section, International Affairs Division, Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland. Before this position Damaris Carnal was Switzerland’s Focal Point for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and worked as a Senior Policy Advisor. Prior to her current position, she was the Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the WTO and EFTA (UNECE, UNCTAD, ITC) since September 2018. In that capacity she was notably in charge of dispute settlement, trade and health and all issues linked to trade and environmental sustainability/climate change.

She had joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in 2007. She was notably the Legal Advisor and Counter-Terrorism Focal Point of the Swiss Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from and the Head of the Section for International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Justice at the FDFA in Bern.

She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and an LL.M from the Geneva Academy of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. She is an experienced international lawyer with extensive multilateral negotiations experience.