Switzerland has ‘systemic’ racism issues, UN experts say

By Emma Farge, Reuters

Switzerland has a serious systemic problem with racism against people of African descent, according to a report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, giving a broad range of examples from police brutality to a children’s game.

The U.N.-appointed working group noted positive measures taken by Switzerland but still voiced concerns about the prevalence of racial discrimination and highlighted several incidents following a visit to the country this year.

“The ubiquity and impunity of this misconduct indicates a serious systemic problem exists,” it said.

Switzerland’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva broadly accepted the findings in comments to the council, although questioned the experts’ use of a limited number of examples to draw wider conclusions.

Landlocked Switzerland was never a colonial power but its banks, traders and municipalities invested heavily and benefited from the transatlantic triangular trade, the report said.

Discover what else the report says.

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