Rightwing militants disturbed Swiss National Day celebrations in 2005, but the extremists have not been much in the headlines since (Keystone

The new president of the Federal Commission against Racism says action is more important than statistical data in combating rights abuses.

Martine Brunschwig Graf, a former parliamentarian from Geneva who took up her new post at the beginning of the year, says her priority is to promote prevention efforts.

“No law can make people think or stop people from thinking. It’s just as well, but at the same time it is making our task even more complicated,” she says.

“What’s more, neither opinion polls nor surveys can bring about the necessary awareness.”

Be that as it may, there are no comprehensive figures on anti-racist activities in Switzerland, as a result of the federalist system which leaves the 26 cantons wide-ranging autonomy.

The cantonal police forces only record figures on violence in general while the Federal Commission against Racism, a government advisory body, list cases of racial discrimination as specified in the criminal code.

The number of violations of article 261bis of the code dropped to 182 last year, compared with 204 cases in 2010. But Olivier Guéniat, a criminologist and commander of the Jura cantonal police forces, says the law is “somewhat vague and includes very different scenarios”.

Another kind of annual record has been compiled by the Foundation Against Racism and Antisemitism for the past 25 years. Together with the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, the same group also publishes specific data on incidents in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Yet another group, Intercommunal Coordination Against Antisemitism and Defamation, is active in the French-speaking part of the country.

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