CERD/C/84/D/50/2012
grounds of membership of a group protected by that provision of the Constitution. A
violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution or an international
convention may also be taken up in the civil or criminal law remedies available at the
cantonal and federal levels. In Swiss law, an alleged conflict between the application of
domestic law and human rights guarantees under the Constitution or a convention may in
principle always be raised by means of the remedies provided to challenge the particular
decisions taken.
4.7
The petitioner took various proceedings through various channels. Two of them
went to the Federal Supreme Court: the one regarding the conversion of his temporary
admission to a residence permit (Federal Administrative Court ruling of 14 May 2007), and
the one regarding his criminal case against the Migrant Reception Office of the Canton of
Vaud, which the Federal Administrative Court ruled inadmissible on 18 August 2011. In
the first appeal, the petitioner certainly cited one or more reports by the Federal
Commission against Racism but did not allege a violation of the Convention. In any case,
the requirement under rule 91 (f) of the Committee’s rules of procedure, for any
communication to be submitted to the Committee within six months of exhaustion of
domestic remedies, was not met.
4.8
As regards the various restrictions surrounding temporary admission, there too the
petitioner has failed to exhaust domestic remedies. He alleged a violation of his right to
privacy and inadequate access to medical care. These complaints were raised in the Federal
Supreme Court as arguments against the dismissal of the petitioner’s criminal complaint
against the Vaud Migrant Reception Office. In its decision of 18 August 2011, the Court
nevertheless found the appeal inadmissible as insufficiently substantiated under article 42,
paragraph 2, of the Act on the Federal Supreme Court, as the petitioner presented no
arguments regarding the grounds for rejection at the cantonal level. The cantonal decision
had found that the criminal complaint was time-barred and that the Migrant Reception
Office had acted in accordance with its mandate in carrying out checks and unannounced
visits to premises. In respect of the complaint of racial discrimination, the Federal Supreme
Court found that it had not been raised at the cantonal level and the Court was therefore not
entitled to consider the application of the Convention, as it had not been invoked in the
manner required by the law. The State party points out that the Cantonal Act on Assistance
to Asylum Seekers and Other Categories of Foreign Nationals clearly sets out the remedies
available against decisions by the Migrant Reception Office.8 Yet the petitioner did not
challenge the Centre’s decisions with regard to housing, medical treatment or welfare using
the remedies described in the Act. He challenged only one welfare payment.
4.9
As regards his admission to the University of Lausanne, the petitioner did not appeal
the decision not to admit him. As to access to employment, there was nothing to prevent the
petitioner from looking for work and being hired. With regard to the denial of authorization
to travel to visit his sick mother in 2008, the appeal lodged by the petitioner was taken off
the Federal Administrative Court register on 5 March 2008 when the appeal was
withdrawn. In any case that appeal does not appear to contain any reference to racial
discrimination. Here again the six-month deadline for submitting a communication to the
Committee was not observed. In 2010 the conditions governing travel documents for
foreigners were relaxed and the petitioner has had the right to obtain a travel document
since April 2010 and leave and return to Switzerland. As to his efforts to obtain a travel
document to study abroad in 2011, the file shows that he did not complete his application
correctly, conflating a request for a travel document with a request for a residence permit.
8
8
These remedies are governed by articles 72 and 73 of the Cantonal Act.
GE.14-41526