White sheep kicking out black sheep: racist swiss ad?

Posters showing a black sheep being kicked off the Swiss flag by a white sheep.

Posters showing a black sheep being kicked off the Swiss flag by a white sheep have cropped up in stations and squares in Switzerland,as part of a campaign for the Swiss Peoples Partys demand to automatically deport foreigners convicted of serious crimes. The demand is to go before a Sunday referendum.

In 2007,the same posters were widely condemned,with Doudou Diene,the UNs racism expert at the time,saying the images draw on stereotypes to paint foreigners as felons and benefit cheats. This year,a study by a polling group shows that 54 per cent of voters approved the measure.

Critics of the deportation proposal include legal experts,who say the law could clash with international treaties. For the same crime some people will suffer one punishment,others will suffer two, said Marcelo Kohen,a professor of international law at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

The federal government has put forward an alternative proposal that would require each deportation case to be individually examined by a judge. Voters will be able to choose between the two or reject both. Georg Kreis,president of the Federal Commission against Racism,said if approved,this would lead to discrimination,but denied that the campaign was proof of greater xenophobia in Switzerland than in neighboring countries.

A Party official denied the posters were racist. In all four languages spoken here,everybody understands black sheep are those who dont stick to rules, Silvia Baer,deputy general secretary of the party said. Its a figure of speech,there is no problem with the posters.