Inflammatory rhetoric

Switzerland is making progress but could do better when it comes to discrimination, according to a council report on the situation in the country.

The Council of Europe, through its European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, or ECRI, writes a report on each member every five years.

Right wing party raises anxiety

In the latest report, ECRI said it is especially concerned about inflammatory political discourse in Switzerland. It warned against the tone of rhetoric used by the populist Swiss People's Party, or SVP. Party members had repeatedly attacked the basic rights of foreigners and breached the ban on racism and hate speech.

The "political discourse" of this national conservative party had "taken on a racist and anti-foreigner tone that could lead to racist generalizations against foreigners, Muslims and other minorities," the report said. Also, statements by the SVP had led to "deep anxiety within Swiss society and within minority groups."

ECRI also noted that unemployment among foreigners, who make up a fifth of the population, was in some places as much as three times that of natives. However, the commission did praise some initiatives taken by the Swiss government, such as integration offices in the country's larger cities and an "extremism department" in the army.

Czechs, Greeks also critiqued

The watchdog's second report rapped the knuckles of the Czech Republic, pointing a finger at right-wing hate groups there that predominantly target Roma.

Crimes against Roma included a murder in 2007, the commission said.

Globally, ECRI stressed, hate-inspired acts of violence had dropped in recent years. But "at the same time, there has been a disturbing intensification in the activities of the extreme right-wing milieu in the Czech Republic, including the setting up of a uniformed paramilitary group by one political party," it said in a report.

Finally, a study on Greece concluded that that country also had made some progress, adopting a law against racial discrimination, and amending a law that makes racial motivation an aggravating circumstance when a crime is committed.

However, among other complaints, the committee also chastised the Greeks for failing to ratify a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights that guarantees non-discrimination.

jen/AFP/dpa
Editor: Nancy Isenson