Swiss anti-terror law sparks rights debate

GENEVA: From the UN to Amnesty, fears abound that a new Swiss anti-terror law, which grants sweeping new powers to police to prevent future attacks, threatens Switzerland’s heritage as a human rights leader.

Shocked by the deadly terror attacks in neighbouring France in 2015, Bern produced a new law allowing police to take preventative action more easily when faced with a "potential terrorist".

The law, which received a parliamentary stamp of approval last year, would apply to a few dozen current cases, according to federal police. Switzerland has thus far been spared the large-scale attacks seen among its European neighbours.

The authorities nonetheless insist the threat level is high, and have said two knife attacks in the country last year likely had "terrorist motivation". But rights advocates and left-leaning politicians have voiced outrage over the law’s potential to trample on the rights of innocent people.

The text "raises questions about the credibility of Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition," Alicia Giraudel, a lawyer with Amnesty International’s Swiss chapter, told AFP. And, she warned, it "could also open the way internationally to security-focused policies that become punitive instruments applied to people who have committed no crime."

The government meanwhile argues that all fundamental rights remain guaranteed under the law, and insists existing de-radicalisation programmes are insufficient to keep Switzerland safe. Opponents of the law gathered the signatures needed to put it to a referendum as part of Switzerland’s direct democracy system, and voters will have their say on June 13.