In the News

Switzerland Xenophobic?

A campaign launched in autumn of 2007 by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), a member of Switzerland’s coalition government, has been condemned by the United Nations as being racist and xenophobic. The campaign is to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence. However, the most serious aspect is the proposal of a law forcing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed, which recalls the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft or kin liability, where relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally.