Switzerland

Ousman Sonko indicted in Switzerland for crimes against humanity in Gambia

25 April 2023 by Julia Crawford

Gambian Ousman Sonko will be tried for crimes against humanity in Switzerland This is said to be the highest ranking individual to be prosecuted in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Ousman Sonko, former Interior Minister of The Gambia, was officially indicted on April 17 by a Swiss prose [...]

A patrol of Senegalese soldiers in the forest of Casamance (Blaze Forest)

27 June 2022 by Mustapha K. Darboe

Swiss first step to investigate environmental crimes in Gambia Three years ago, the Swiss NGO TRIAL International filed a complaint against a Swiss businessman operating in the Gambia with the complicity of its former president Yahya Jammeh. The Swiss national is accused of having committed a [...]

Ousman Sonko

25 January 2022 by Julia Crawford

Five years on, the slow wheels of Swiss justice in Gambian case Five years ago, on 26 January 2017, former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko was arrested in Switzerland, suspected of crimes against humanity. Five years after, he is still in pre-trial detention in the Alpine country. Why i [...]

Kazem Rajavi

26 October 2021 by Julia Crawford

Why Switzerland is relaunching an Iranian cold case for "genocide" The cold case of an Iranian dissident assassinated in Switzerland 30 years ago was ordered reopened on September 27 by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, on suspicions of “genocide or crimes against humanity”. Why?

Alieu Kosiah

21 June 2021 by Antoine Harari

Switzerland: Kosiah convicted in first universal jurisdiction trial On June 18, after three months of deliberations, judges of the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona found former Liberian warlord Alieu Kosiah guilty of war crimes in the first universal jurisdiction trial to be held in Switzerlan [...]

Drawing of Alieu Kosiah during his trial in Switzerland

8 March 2021 by Antoine Harari

Judgment awaited in Alieu Kosiah war crimes trial The trial of former Liberian rebel fighter Alieu Kosiah ended on March 5 in Switzerland. Accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the early 1990s in Liberia, Kosiah denied being present at the time of the eve [...]

Dessin d'un avocat des victimes dans le procès Kosiah, en Suisse. © Leslie Lumeh

22 February 2021 by Antoine Harari

In Swiss trial, Liberian victims tell chilling tales of Alieu Kosiah The trial of Alieu Kosiah, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, resumed on February 15 in Switzerland. Six of the seven plaintiffs took the stand to give chilling accounts of crimes they say were committed by the for [...]

Opinion

30 November 2020 by Maud Sarliève

Corporate responsibility: Switzerland says no but the UN must say yes The Swiss rejected legislation requiring multinationals to be responsible, at home and abroad, for environmental and human rights abuses related to their activities. As Maud Sarliève explains, Switzerland is thus moving away from [...]

27 November 2020 by Julia Crawford

World watches as Swiss vote on “responsible business” On November 29 the Swiss vote on a proposal that would make Swiss-based multinationals accountable for environmental crimes and human rights abuses in relation to their activities abroad. Here is how to understand an initiative th [...]

27 March 2020 by Julia Crawford

Looking to keep transitional justice archives safe? Call the Swiss While the Dutch house international courts and support many transitional justice mechanisms around the globe, the Swiss offer the “after care” services by attracting the world's leading archival experts and, more rarely, by housin [...]

10 October 2019 by Julia Crawford

Raw truth of Swiss administrative detention finally made public At least 60,000 people were subject to forced “administrative detentions” or compulsory “welfare” measures, often abused and sexually assaulted, in Switzerland over much of the 20th century, according to a recent expert report, wh [...]

15 February 2019 by Julia Crawford

International Crimes : Spotlight on Switzerland’s war crimes unit Switzerland’s war crimes unit was set up in 2012, following a change in the law the previous year that transferred responsibility for prosecuting international crimes from military to civil judicial authorities. But seven years on [...]

17 September 2018 by Pierre Hazan

Revising the past: A Swiss response to a global debate To what extent should we take down statues, change the names of streets, towns and mountains when they bear the names of people who contributed to human misery? The spectacular removal in Charlottesville, US, of a statue of Genera [...]

2 June 2017 by Julia Crawford

Will Switzerland dare to prosecute two African leaders the Gambian Sonko and the Liberian Kosiah ? Human rights NGOs hope Switzerland has the political will to prosecute former Gambian minister Ousman Sonko and former Liberian rebel leader Alieu Kosiah. Sonko is suspected of crimes against humanity while Kosiah is charged with [...]

27 March 2017 by Stéphanie Maupas, correspondent in The Hague

Universal jurisdiction gains ground from Pinochet to Syria Universal jurisdiction is making slow but steady progress as a tool against impunity, and not only in Europe. This is according to a report published on Monday March 27 by five human rights organizations. Forty-seven people suspec [...]

AFP

12 February 2017 by AFP

Swiss vote on citizenship measure after anti-Muslim campaign Switzerland began voting Sunday on whether to make it easier for third generation immigrants to become citizens, after a campaign tainted by anti-Muslim messages and charges of religious prejudice. This Sunday is one of four in th [...]

30 November 2016 by Marcela Aguila Rubín

‘Death opens the eyes of the living’ Secret mass graves in Mexico, daily bombings and a mounting death toll in Syria, 30,000 “disappeared” people in Argentina. What does the fight for truth and justice mean in terrible contexts like these where impunity persists? A S [...]

26 October 2016 by Frédéric Burnand

Geneva Twitter bot flags up dictators’ planes An open-source computer programme identifies planes flying into Geneva airport which belong to authoritarian regimes and raises the alert via Twitter. The creators of the GVA Dictator Alert now want to install the device in other [...]

18 October 2016 by Vony Rambolamanana, Geneva

New-look IRIN opens Geneva office Humanitarian news agency IRIN, which turned independent from the UN in 2015, opened a new office in Geneva on October 12. Since taking its independence, IRIN has had funding concerns, but has now been able to re-launch with suppor [...]