E/CN.4/2002/24 page 41 G. Switzerland 97. By a letter of 10 October 2001, the Swiss Government addressed to the Special Rapporteur copious, informative documentation on incidents constituting contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, all types of discrimination directed against, inter alia, Blacks, Arabs and Muslims, xenophobia, anti-Black feeling, anti-Semitism and related intolerance. 98. The Swiss communication comprises five bulletins from the independent Swiss Federal Commission against Racism. Bulletins 7-10 contain extracts from press reports concerning racist incidents in Switzerland in 1999 and 2000. In addition, bulletin 7 deals with the question of Muslims in Switzerland, bulletin 8 with coloured people in Switzerland, and bulletin 9 with the question of women and men confronted with racism in Switzerland; a special report of November 1998 relates to anti-Semitism in Switzerland. All these highly instructive documents are available in the secretariat. In bulletin 10 published in March 2001, containing the year 2000 report of the Federal Commission against Racism, the Special Rapporteur noted useful information on racial discrimination. This Commission has, in fact, discussed discrimination, referring also to the subjective experience of discrimination by Swiss people; it has devoted particular attention to exclusion and discrimination more specifically affecting people with black skins (anti-Black racism). 99. On the question of discrimination against travellers, the Federal Commission against Racism has dealt with one specific case of conflict. It has criticized the growing tendency, already noted in connection with naturalization procedures, “to detract from fundamental democratic rights in order to discriminate against minorities”, of which the referendum for the banning of a parking area for travellers is one example (see also paragraph 94 above). 100. The Commission has also received from several black people testimony and analyses of their personal experience of racism in Switzerland. In bulletin 8 it highlighted the following comments: “As in other European countries, the everyday experience of Blacks in Switzerland is characterized above all by a lack of geographic, cultural and economic interest on the part of Swiss people in their countries of origin. Secondly, the non-acceptance of Blacks in a world whose way of life is based on protectionism originates from a combination of psychological, historical, economic and political factors. Switzerland fears for its physical integrity, which might be jeopardized by any undesired mixture, and principally mixture with Blacks, which would call into question the permanent nature of the “race”. For the Swiss citizen, there is a potential danger that wars and famine, the daily lot of Africa and similar environments, may be imported into his country. The everyday discourse of the Swiss generally comprises an image of Blacks based on a projective identity. They can only conjure up a picture of dubious people from countries characterized by hunger, sickness, drought and poverty, a view they attribute to both external (climatic) factors and to the intrinsically inferior qualities of these peoples. This paranoid behaviour is related to the knowledge that assistance is given to peoples from other countries, and is regularly encouraged in the local media (newspapers and television) and in public life. A Swiss is uneasy when he sees a foreigner enjoying the same rights and benefits as the majority of the population. Under the policy of protectionist obedience encouraged by the far-right parties, this view is invariably proclaimed on the occasion of speeches advocating