UNITED NATIONS - A UN human rights expert has warned that Switzerland’s proposed law authorizing heavy fines for protesters without official permission to demonstrate would have a “chilling” effect on the rights to freedom of assembly and expression in the country.
The new law targets demonstrations in the canton of Geneva, with fines of up to $110,000 for those without authorization to demonstrate, who fail to respect the authorization’s content or do not comply with police injunctions.
“Such an amount is disproportionate and would have a chilling effect on the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of expression,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, said Friday.
With mandates from the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are charged with examining, monitoring, advising and publicly reporting on human rights situations in specific countries or territories, or on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide.