http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.htm...105&sid=1467859

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The Swiss government is financing an organisation campaigning in the United States for greater respect of international law - especially over the death penalty.

A key aim of the International Justice Project is to highlight death sentences passed on minors and the mentally handicapped.

The organisation works alongside police, lawyers, and judges to raise awareness of international conventions governing capital punishment.

Set up three years ago, the project is financed jointly by Switzerland and Britain. This year the foreign ministry’s contribution amounted to SFr30,000 ($20,000).

But Anne James, the founder and director of the project, told swissinfo that Switzerland’s contribution went well beyond financial backing.
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She said international law was not an obligatory subject for law students in the US and that many lawyers thought it undermined national laws.

Because of the enormity of the task, the organisation concentrates on seminars for lawyers and focuses on highly controversial areas, such as death sentences passed on minors and the mentally handicapped – a strategy which appears to be producing results.

“More and more American lawyers are making reference to international law in their defence speeches, in particular in the case of minors,” James told swissinfo.

“The number of lawyers our organisation is in contact with has quadrupled in three years, and more and more lawyers are coming to us for information,” she added.
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Are you saying with this article that the Swiss are working to fund the proper investigation of possible human rights offenses in the incorrect death sentences of society's vulnerables, including minors and the (mentally) handicapped/challenged?

Well, I'm glad Switzerland is interested in helping American law students to learn more about international legal conventions, including on capital punishment.

I'm sure Switzerland also knows about other international legal conventions, such as those that govern the thousands of refugees it turned away or collaboration with deadly regimes, as it did financially with the Nazis from 1933-1945. But as a small, very rich, isolationist country that faced the threat of an invasion or Anschluß, I guess it can always claim a measure of moral distance from such matters.

I'd much rather that the money came from a nation like the Netherlands....

You can say what you want about Switzerland's past, but a lot has changed in the realm of human rights and liberties in the past 60 years or so. Switzerland, along with nearly every civilized enlightened nation in the world, has banned the death penalty. The United States, by continuing this brutal, medieval practice, puts itself on a moral equivilent with other death penalty countries such as China, the Congo, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

The death penalty is racist, unjust, inhumane, and unproven as a deterrent to crime. This is a global human rights issue, and other countries have every right to do what they can to end this abuse.

(Sorry for the dramatics. I get a little heated about this issue.)

[quote]Originally posted by conor500:
The United States, by continuing this brutal, medieval practice, puts itself on a moral equivilent with other death penalty countries such as China, the Congo, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

(Sorry for the dramatics. I get a little heated about this issue.)

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Interesting that all of the countries you mention probably profess a lower murder rate than the US. But then none would count the state-approved execution of an innocent person as murder as long as they got a fair trial . If they did count them, then all, including the US, would have higher murder rates - but how much hihger? Nobody knows.

[quote]Originally posted by fantomas:
I'd much rather that the money came from a nation like the Netherlands....

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Ditto. Or Sweden or Norway.

This is ironic, because Hitler wreaked havoc in Germany, which is somewhat near Switzerland. And we all know the death penalty is soooo Hitler.

William, a laugh a minute.

Just a small heads-up on Switzerland, which has thankfully gotten rid of the death penalty. Yes, Germany borders on Switzerland, the country "of a thousand years of peace" (a bit of hyperbole). Switzerland's federation dates from the medieval era and its independence from around 1648 or so, which is far older than Germany (1867-68, I believe, is when Bismarck united that country, which even then retained internal autonomous monarchic regions, etc.). Unlike its smaller neighbors in north-central Europe (Belgium, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, etc.) Switzerland has never been overrun since the Napoleanic period. It has managed to retain a distinct unique identity for much of its history, and it is one of the few countries in Europe where three primary, different ethnic groups, each speaking a different language, live in considerable harmony.

Germany diplomatically pressured Switzerland during the 12 years of Hitler's tenure (1933-1945) to accede to a wide range of German demands, including barring refugees (particularly Jews) from entering the country. Switzerland did allow *some* Jewish and other refugees to cross the border right up to the beginning of the war, in 1939, and even a few more after that point, though in general the Swiss leadership generally did not permit easy entry, as it attempted to maintain the neutrality (and blunt the possibility of a German attack) that was recognized as far back as the Treaty of Westphalia. However, it was later revealed that Swiss banks did work with the Nazis extensively on a financial basis, and even processed a considerable amount of the money that the Nazis seized during the Aryanization of Jewish businesses, as well afterwards, during the period of the Holocaust. This is a serious moral blight on Switzerland, because other neutral nations, like Sweden and Portugal were not so actively tied to the German regime, but then Switzerland was in a unique position, as it is predominantly Germanic in character and origin, it was surrounded from all sides by the Germans during the war, and its main business, banking, was heavily tied to Germany, Austria and the surrounding countries before and during the Nazi period. So while there are explanations for Switzerland's behavior, it is still was deeply troubling.

Austria is a different story altogether--THAT is where Hitler came from.

[ November 22, 2002: Message edited by: fantomas ]

My understanding is that his native Austria could not provide Hitler the platform he was looking for - and that's where Germany came in. It just happens that both Germans and Austrians speak German.



[ November 23, 2002: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]