Violence and harassment in Switzerland
Recent stories
More on referenda and racism
In the aftermath of the Emmen referendum on citizenship applications and a new referendum scandal in Versoix, there has been renewed focus on the implications for minorities of Switzerland's model of decision-making via the referendum process and system of direct democracy.
1 January 2001 (820 words)
Foreigners law to be revised
The government has announced a major review of the foreigners law, indicating that it intends to close access to the labour market to non-EU citizens with exceptions made for those with sought-after skills, such as computer scientists.
1 January 2001 (91 words)
National referendum on immigration condemned
On 24 September, the Swiss voted in a highly-controversial referendum on whether or not to limit immigration and make greater efforts to expel 'illegal immigrants'.
1 January 2001 (609 words)
Educational apartheid condemned
The SVP are campaigning for educational apartheid in the Swiss schools system, says Le Temps, which also points out that the SVP's proposals have their roots in the system in some German-speaking parts of Switzerland whereby separate classes for foreign and Swiss children exist.
1 August 2000 (233 words)
Banks refuse to open accounts for asylum-seekers
The Commission Against Racism (EKR) is to investigate Swiss banks following disclosures that some are refusing to open accounts for asylum-seekers.
1 August 2000 (63 words)
Other local authorities reject xenophobia
Another Jura canton rejects discrimination in maternity benefits
1 August 2000 (150 words)
States Councillor proposes language residence test
Councillor to the States Eugen David (PDC/SG) has demanded that foreigners' residents' permits are withdrawn unless foreigners can express themselves in Goethe's tongue.
1 August 2000 (34 words)
Local authorities institutionalise xenophobia
Courroux discriminates against foreign babies
1 August 2000 (513 words)
Race relations under threat
SVP wants to dismantle Commission Against Racism
1 August 2000 (481 words)
Council of Europe classifies SVP as extreme-Right party
The Council of Europe has criticised the SVP for its steady drift towards xenophobia and classified it as an extreme-Right party on the lines of the Austrian FPÖ.
1 August 2000 (80 words)
Citizenship by people's ballot = institutionalised racism
A ballot on March 12 in the depressed Lucerne industrial suburb of Essen on whether to accept the citizenship applications of 56 people requesting naturalisation has been described as an ugly development without precedent in Europe which institutionalises xenophobia.
1 August 2000 (700 words)
Switzerland and the Holocaust
First prosecution for Holocaust denial
1 August 2000 (162 words)
Banks and auditing firms accused of cashing in on Holocaust search
In August 1998 the two largest Swiss banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, handed over £30 million with the aim of making speedy payments to Holocaust survivors nearing the end of their lives.
1 July 1999 (195 words)
Roma criticise application of Holocaust needy victims fund
The Roma National Congress (RNC) has presented a lawsuit asserting that funds paid by the 'Swiss fund for needy victims of the Holocaust-Shoah' to Roma and Sinti were in part mislaid.
1 July 1999 (64 words)
Lausanne city council bans British racist rock group
After complaints by the local anti-racist group ACOR, the British hard rock group 'Death in June' was banned from performing its concert in Lausanne by the city authorities.
1 July 1999 (73 words)
Government Commission highlights rising anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism has spread, and the Swiss, across classes, are more openly anti-Semitic.
1 July 1999 (145 words)
Adolescent racism revealed
Forty seven per cent of adolescents between the ages of 13-18 are openly hostile to foreigners, according to a report by a commission on youth in Zurich.
1 April 1995 (62 words)
Unexplained fire at hostel for the homeless
One man died, and a further two were injured, in Olten, after a fire swept through a hostel for the homeless.
1 March 1995 (46 words)
Bomb attacks on refugee centres
In the space of ten days in October, there were three fire bomb attacks on centres housing refugees in Bülach, near the Austrian border.
1 March 1995 (51 words)
Other attacks
On 13 November, in Cadenaz (TI), a group of unidentified men threw a grenade at a building where people from the former-Yugoslavia were holding a party.
1 March 1994 (81 words)
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