Ruth Dreifuss

In 1999, Ruth Dreifuss became the first woman President of Switzerland. From 1993 to 2002, she headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs. She implemented a new drug policy based on the four-pillar principle (prevention, therapy, harm reduction and repression), a policy that has now been integrated into the Federal Law on Drugs.

After leaving the government, she chaired the WHO commission on public health, innovation and intellectual property rights, and co-chaired the High Level Panel on the same subject mandated by the UN Secretary General.

In 2011, she participated in the creation of the Global Commission on Drug Policy which she chaired from 2016 to 2020. Currently, Ruth Dreifuss chairs the Geneva Advisory Commission on Addictions, tasked with making policy reforms proposals for both legal and illegal drugs. The Commission is in charge of realizing a pilot project of cannabis regulation in Geneva. Ruth Dreifuss graduated from the University of Geneva with an Economics degree in 1970.