Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Switzerland.htm
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Switzerland. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent
countries and/or regions. Meanwhile,
check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Switzerland U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/switzerland/
[accessed 8 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit such practices. There were isolated reports that individual
police officers used excessive force while making arrests and that prison
staff engaged in degrading treatment of detainees. Impunity was not a
significant problem in the security forces. According to the Federal
Statistical Office, the country’s courts convicted 11 persons for abuse of
authority in 2019. In May the Federal
Supreme Court ruled the detention conditions in the Champ-Dollon
prison in Geneva violated the prohibition of torture according to the
constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found
that a prisoner was held in a small cell for 234 days between 2014 and 2016.
The prisoner was only allowed to walk for one hour a day and to exercise for
three-to-four hours a week. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/switzerland/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] IS THERE AN
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY?
- While the judiciary is largely independent, judges are affiliated with
political parties and are selected based on a system of proportional party,
linguistic, and regional representation in the Federal Assembly. In late
2017, a group of civil society leaders introduced an initiative to remove the
party affiliation requirement from the judicial nomination process in an
effort to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. DOES DUE PROCESS
PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - Due process normally prevails in civil
and criminal matters. IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES?
- Switzerland is generally free from war and the use of illegitimate force by
authorities is relatively rare. The occasional use of excessive force by
police has been documented. The Universal Periodic Review of Switzerland’s
human rights record, which was presented by the Swiss government to the
United Nations in June 2017, documented some incidents of alleged excessive
use of force against undocumented immigrants during the deportation process.
Conditions in prisons and detention centers generally meet international
standards, and the Swiss government permits visits by independent observers. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/CR/34/CHE
(2005) www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=42cd71ce4 [accessed 8 March
2013] 4. The Committee
expresses concern regarding the following: (f) In spite of the
increase in number of complaints filed against the police, often by persons
of foreign origin, for ill-treatment, only a minority of these complaints
result in prosecutions or indictments, and even fewer cases result in
compensation for the victims or their families; (g) All but one
canton have failed to establish machinery to receive complaints against
members of the police regarding allegations of torture or ill-treatment
during arrest, questioning and police custody, in spite of a previous
recommendation of the Committee in this regard; AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 POLICE AND SECURITY
FORCES
- Allegations of ill-treatment by the police in the Canton of Geneva
continued, including against minors, during or immediately after arrest. In
October, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture recommended
introducing improved training and reinforcing existing safeguards to combat
ill-treatment by police. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=switzerland+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 14 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61678.htm [accessed 12
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61678.htm [accessed 7 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were reports of occasional use of
excessive force by police authorities. In October the
cantonal government in Tessin suspended two
policemen accused of robbing and verbally abusing several asylum-seekers. The
cantonal prosecutor charged the two police officers of misusing their
functions, theft, and breaching the antiracism law. A 2004 Amnesty
International (AI) report highlighted several instances of police
mistreatment of detainees, particularly foreigners, citizens of foreign
origin, and asylum seekers. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Switzerland", http://gvnet.com/torture/Switzerland.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
