ALARM AT CALL FOR ABOLISHMENT OF SWISS RACISM LAW
By Youri Hazanov

European Jewish Press, Belgium
Nov 28 2006

GENEVA (EJP)— The Democratic Union of the Centre, the right-wing
party that won a majority in the last Swiss elections, has proposed to
the abolishment of Switzerland’s anti-racist law, arguing it impedes
freedom of speech.

The Federation of the Swiss Jewish communities has expressed concern
after the declaration by Ueli Maurer, the Democratic Union’s leader and
previously Switzerland’s justice minister, and members of his party,
known as UDC.

The law was adopted on Jan. 1, 1995, and forbids any discrimination
against a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity or
religion. It also mandates punishment for denying or attempting to
justify a genocide or crime against humanity, especially the Holocaust.

The UDC holds that the law is too abstract and that Swiss do not
understand what they can and cannot say in public. Maurer said his
party was fighting for freedom of speech in Switzerland, and that
everyone should have the right to express what they thought, even if
it was not right.

Moreover, the UDC charges that the law has encouraged a passive form
of racism. They say the penal law is not the best way to combat to
revisionism, and that more faith should be placed in people’s ability
to discern between right and wrong.

Still, others argue the law is not harsh enough.

Tobias Hirschi, a member of the extreme-right party PSN, was recently
acquitted by a Solothurn court after being charged for carrying a
banner with the slogan "Who directs the workers?" next to a Star of
David in a May 2005 demonstration.

Hirschi was accused of tapping into the Nazi ideology that led to
the Holocaust, but the judge ruled that although the banner was
anti-Semitic, there was no link to the Nazis. As such, it did not
violate the anti-racism law.

The debate on the law began after Swiss Minister of Justice Christophe
Blocher, a former UDC leader, declared during a visit to Turkey that
everyone has the right to an opinion and the right to express it,
and that the law should be abolished.

It was enacted in another case in 2005 after a July visit by Turkish
politician Dogu Perincek to Lausanne. Perincek denied a genocide of
Armenians by Turkey took place in 1915. The Swiss government, which
has officially recognized the genocide, charged him with negating it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress