Muslims in Switzerland face discrimination, while the country allows legislative gaps on racism to remain open, an Amnesty International report has claimed.
The report, entitled Choice and Prejudice, also looked at the problem of discrimination against Muslims in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
It concluded that visible symbols of this religious group, including headscarves, beards and minarets, were often viewed with hostility and that Muslims experienced discrimination in employment, education and other areas.
“Discrimination against Muslims in Europe is fuelled by stereotyped and negative views, which fail to take into account basic demographic and sociological factors such as the diversity of Muslim groups as well as their cultural and religious practices across the region,” it stated.
The President of the Swiss Federal Commission on Racism, Martine Brunschwig Graf, welcomed the report, adding that the commission had already put forward solutions to cover the gaps in anti-discrimination legislation.
Legal hurdle
Switzerland’s main failing towards its Muslim population, according to Amnesty, is the lack of comprehensive legislation covering racism and discrimination.
The report concluded that Switzerland had not implemented recommendations from human rights treaty bodies relating to legislation, including those of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2010.
While the Swiss constitution does enshrine the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination on several grounds – including race and religious beliefs – this does not translate into adequate protection within society, the report argued.
Swiss civil legislation does not recognise the sharing of the burden of the proof in cases of discrimination, except on the grounds of gender. This has proved to be a significant hurdle to initiating legal proceedings, the report said.
Brunschwig Graf echoed Amnesty’s call for shared burden of proof and the need for an equality body to monitor anti-domestic legislation.
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Categories: Discrimination, Europe, Hijab, Human Rights, Human values, Immigration, Switzerland
All the countries should remove all types of discrimination including on the basis of Religion and They should reconcile their laws according to the basic human rights laws give in UNO charter.