Opening of the Conference
Wednesday, 14. October 2009 | 10:00 Uhr
Speaker
Organisation
Reporting
“Violence related to wars and political conflicts on large and distant scenes, or also domestic violence, is widely known and often analysed. But unmotivated violence by young people among us – which is becoming more and more brutal despite decreasing crime rates – is a completely new phenomenon”, as Dr. Klaus Hug mentioned in his opening speech of the this year’s Dialogue on Science of the Academia Foundation Engelberg held in the town of Engelberg. He encouraged the conference participants to further explore and analyze the issue in the coming days without remaining confined to it. Therapy is always more difficult than analysis, he stated and continued that the conference participants shall not hesitate to search for approaches to a solution, either in the smaller social environment or in a broader political dimension.
Klaus Hug
Klaus Hug was born in 1940. After receiving his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the department of law in Zurich in 1970, he was granted the right to practise law in 1971. Between 1972 and 1976 (and also 1980 and 1984) he was Secretary of the Central Swiss Association of Employers in Zurich. Between 1976 and 1979 he was personal secretary to MP Kurt Furgler, and from 1984 to 1991 he was Director of the Department of Industry, Trade and Employment (BIGA).
Since summer 1991 has worked as a lawyer and economic consultant in Berne and Zurich. As of 1992 he is the Executive President of the Swiss Association for Department Stores, known today as the Swiss Retail Federation; diverse government commissions; a member of the Federal Commission for Competition; consultant to the legal practice of Bär & Karrer in Zurich.
Since 1992, he has held the office of President of the Swiss Technology Assessment Committee (for the Swiss Department of Science and Technology). Klaus Hug is also President of the governing board of the Institute of Intellectual Ownership (IGE) in Berne.
