Switzerland

10 October 2023; MEMO: Israel’s total siege of the Gaza Strip, depriving civilians of goods essential for survival, is banned under international law, the United Nations Human Rights chief said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said people’s dignity and lives had to be respected as he called for all sides to defuse the “explosive powder-keg situation.”

GENEVA (AP) — A unique 2030 World Cup is set to be played in Europe and Africa with the surprising addition of South America in a deal to allow the men’s soccer tournament to start with a 100th birthday party in Uruguay.

FIFA reached an agreement Wednesday between soccer’s continental leaders to accept only one candidate for hosting the 2030 tournament in six countries, the sport’s governing body said.

GENEVA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Systemic racism against people of African descent pervades America's police forces and criminal justice system, and U.S. authorities must urgently step up efforts for reform, a new United Nations (UN) report has said.

The report was issued by the UN International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the context of Law Enforcement on Thursday following its official country visit to the United States earlier this year.

ZURICH, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Switzerland's federal prosecutor said on Thursday it has filed an indictment against the daughter of Uzbekistan's former president, accusing her of taking bribes and running an elaborate criminal organisation known as "The Office".

Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Islam Karimov - who ruled Uzbekistan from 1991 to 2016 - is accused of leading the operation which allegedly channelled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bribes from telecoms companies.

GENEVA (AP) — A court in northern Switzerland on Thursday acquitted a former security Belarusian operative over the enforced disappearances of three of President Aleksander Lukashenko’s political opponents in the late 1990s, said an advocacy group that spearheaded the case.

Judges in the northern town of Rorschach said they were not convinced that the defendant, Yuri Harauski, a former member of a Belarusian military unit known as SOBR, was involved in the disappearances.

26 September 2023; MEMO: No one has a say in what women should wear, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokeswoman said on Tuesday, weighing in on France’s recent ban on headscarves for athletes in next year’s Olympic Games, Anadolu Agency reports.

ZURICH, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Germany has welcomed a decision by neutral Switzerland to open the way to sell back some of its German-made Leopard II tanks to help rebuild stocks depleted by aid to Ukraine.

Germany had asked Switzerland in February to sell back some of the 96 Leopard II tanks it has in storage to manufacturer Rheinmetall AG (RHMG.DE).

To comply with Swiss neutrality laws, Berlin has assured Bern the weapons would not go to Kyiv, but remain in Germany or with a NATO or European Union ally.

GENEVA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Russian occupiers tortured Ukrainians so brutally that some of their victims died, and forced families to listen as they raped women next door, members of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said on Monday, in their latest findings from the field.

Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva his team had "collected further evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian armed forces in areas under their control has been widespread and systematic".

20 September 2023; MEMO: The Swiss Parliament passed legislation on Wednesday making it illegal to cover one’s face, including wearing a niqab – a Muslim woman’s face veil – with a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs (approximately $1,114), Anadolu Agency reports.

The “burqa ban” law was approved by the upper chamber of parliament, known locally as Nationalrat, by a vote of 151 to 29, public broadcaster, SRF, reported.

GENEVA (AP) — Venezuela’s government has intensified efforts to curtail democratic freedoms with use of threats, surveillance and harassment as President Nicolás Maduro faces a re-election contest next year, U.N.-backed human rights experts reported on Wednesday.