Patrick Gauchat

Patrick Gauchat (22 May 1968) is a Swiss General Officer.¹ He is the first Swiss to lead a UN Mission.²

Military career

Training and first command

Promotions¹

1997 Captain
2004 Major
2006 Lieutenant Colonel
2009 Colonel
2017 Major General

After training, Gauchat took command of a mountain fusilier company (1997).

Service as a staff officer

As a staff officer, he performed various commanding duties, including commander of a mountain infantry battalion (2006-2008), deputy commander of the Tenth Mountain Infantry Brigade 10 (2014–2015)³ and deputy commander of Territorial Division 1 (2016–2017).³

Service in the rank of general

In 2017, he was appointed head of the Swiss delegation to the Neutral Monitoring Commission for the Armistice between the Two Koreas (NNSC). In 2021, he was appointed head of the UN peacekeeping mission United Nations Truce Supervision Organization supervising ceasefires in Middle East (UNTSO).

Overseas assignments

2000 UN Military Observer, UNTSO, Middle East¹
2004 Deputy Head of the Swiss Delegation NNSC, Korea¹
2009 Head of Peacebuilding MONUSCO, later: MONUSCO, Congo und Somalia¹
2011 Deputy Head of Mission UNTSO in Jerusalem¹
2013 Commander Sector North (JRD-N) at NATO's KFOR-Mission in Kosovo¹
2014 Senior Officer Middle East and Asia, HQ at UN, New York City¹
2017 Head of the Swiss delegation to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) (Korea)¹
2021 Head of Mission/Chief of Staff UNTSO²

Private life

Gauchat holds engineering degree from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne¹³ and is fluent in German, English, French, and Spanish.³

References

Divisionär Patrick Gauchat. Chef der Schweizer Delegation NNSC. Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport, 1. Januar 2018 (PDF; 268 kB).
Erstmals übernimmt ein Schweizer das Kommando über eine UNO-Friedensmission. In: St. Galler Tagblatt. 29. Oktober 2021.
Major General Patrick Gauchat of Switzerland – Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Secretary-General of the United Nations, 28. Oktober 2021.

[vita-1] Divisionär Patrick Gauchat. Chef der Schweizer Delegation NNSC. Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport, 1. Januar 2018 (PDF; 268 kB).

[tagblatt.ch-2] Erstmals übernimmt ein Schweizer das Kommando über eine UNO-Friedensmission. In: St. Galler Tagblatt. 29. Oktober 2021.

[un.org-3] Major General Patrick Gauchat of Switzerland – Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Secretary-General of the United Nations, 28. Oktober 2021.

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