Human Rights Council targets Swiss minaret ban

A group of African and Arab states has submitted a resolution to the UN Human Rights Council that indirectly targets Switzerland for its ban on the construction of minarets.

The 21-point resolution, submitted by Pakistan, warns of a “burgeoning trend” of religious hatred and defamation and “strongly condemns . . . the ban on construction of minarets of mosques.”

The resolution does not specifically identify Switzerland but it states that any nation that bans minarets is guilty of “Islamaphobia”.

The council is set to discuss the resolution on March 23 before voting on it before the current session ends three days later.

“Everyone knows they’re talking about Switzerland,” council spokesperson, Claire Kaplun, told Swisster.

In a referendum last November, 57.5 percent of Swiss voters supported a law which bans the construction of new minaret towers on mosques, sparking a backlash from Islamic groups and Arab countries.

The vote, which went against the wishes of the Swiss federal government, has also been contentious within Switzerland, which has a Muslim population of around 400,000.

The situation is particularly embarrassing for the Swiss, as the UN Human Rights Council was Bern's brainchild.

The council was set up in 2006 as a successor to a previous commission to analyse and make recommendations on accusations of human rights violations.

“Switzerland defends religious freedom,” said Raphaël Saborit, spokesperson at the Swiss mission to the UN.

But the Swiss federal government thinks the motion is inappropriate, Saborit said.

The foreign ministry has already exchanged views on the subject earlier this month in a meeting with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a group of 57 Muslim states, for which Pakistan is acting  as a representative.

“Switzerland disagrees with the concept of a resolution devoted to the defamation of religions,” said Saborit.

Some Human Rights Council members may try to alter the language of the resolution in forthcoming debates.

Trouble has been brewing for Switzerland at the UN since the minaret ban was supported in the referendum.

In December, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said the move was discriminatory and deeply divisive, and that it risked putting the county on a “collision course” with its international rights obligations.

Anti-minaret campaigners in Switzerland indulged in “anti-foreigner scare-mongering”, Pillay said.

The HRC announced in February that freedom of religious belief would be a topic for discussion in the present session, so this week’s move to set down complaints in writing is not a complete surprise.

Switzerland was a member of the council from 2006-09, but is not involved in 2010, as membership of the human rights body is organised on a three-year rotational basis.

A Swiss delegate has been speaking at meetings this week on torture and the right to truth, but no response has been given on the minaret issue apart from brief comments sent to journalists by the spokesperson.

Some NGOs have said the council is ineffective, as it can only make recommendations, rather than enforce the details of resolutions.

“The Human Rights Council has no enforcement power . . . it can endorse a report and ask the General Assembly to take action, which can then approach the Security Council,” Kaplun said.

If the issue is sent on to the Assembly for debate, Switzerland’s reputation risks further damage, even if no concrete action is taken regarding the minaret ban.

A charge before another body, the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights, alleges that the ban runs contrary to the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights on freedom of religious belief.

The appeal was lodged by Hafid Ouardiri, an Algerian-born Muslim and a former spokesman for the Geneva Mosque.

Ouardiri wants the court to rule that the ban is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The HRC resolution compounds problems between Switzerland and the Muslim world, which are also strained by the diplomatic and trade row with Libya.

Last week the 17-member Arab League backed a call by Tripoli for a trade boycott against Switzerland in a conflict which shows no sign of abating.