A/HRC/4/19/Add.2 page 8 and xenophobia in Switzerland include the Council of Europe and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).7 It should be noted that, when it acceded to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Switzerland made two reservations to article 2, paragraph 1 (a), stating that “Switzerland reserves the right to apply its legal provisions relating to the admission of foreigners to the Swiss labour market”, and also to article 4, concerning freedom of association. D. Recent votes on immigration and asylum 23. Since 1970, 22 federal votes have dealt with foreigners or questions relating to asylum. A list of these votes is contained in the annex to this document. 24. In September 2004, a vote was taken on two issues: facilitated naturalization for young second-generation foreigners and acquisition of citizenship for third-generation foreigners. During this campaign, some people condemned the “disinformation attempting to link facilitated naturalization with delinquency”. Indeed, sharp criticism was levelled at the political campaigns launched by the Swiss People’s Party/Centre Democratic Union (SVP/UDC) on this subject and, inter alia, posters such as one showing the hands of persons of colour trying to catch Swiss passports in a basket or a poster showing Osama Bin Laden on a Swiss identity card with the subtitle “don’t be fooled”.8 The two issues were rejected. 25. On 24 September 2006, two issues were submitted for a vote in Switzerland concerning the amendment of the Asylum Act and the Federal Act on Foreign Nationals. During his mission, the Special Rapporteur followed with great interest the various debates on these votes, which involve matters directly related to his mandate. 26. With regard to the amendment of the law on asylum, the Special Rapporteur’s attention was drawn, in particular, to the position of certain NGOs that denounced the amendment of the law as incompatible with Switzerland’s international obligations. Among other things, the NGOs criticized: • The refusal of the authorities to consider requests for asylum if the applicant cannot furnish, within 48 hours, a passport or an identity card (birth certificates or driving licences will no longer be recognized as valid); 7 Respectively, the report of Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights, on his visit to Switzerland, 29 November-3 December 2004, Strasbourg, 8 June 2005 CommDH(2005)7, and European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), third report on Switzerland, adopted on 27 June 2003, Strasbourg, 27 January 2004, CRI(2004)5. 8 Poster signed by young people supporting UDC Valais Romand.