Racial discrimination cases in Switzerland remain high in 2025

After a surge of nearly 40% in 2024, cases have now “stabilised at a high level”, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) and the human rights NGO humanrights said in a joint statement. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland recorded 1,245 cases of racial discrimination in 2025, a 3% increase on the previous year, according to the annual report of the Advisory Network for Victims of Racism published on Sunday. As in 2024, most cases occurred in the education sector.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

After a surge of nearly 40% in 2024, cases have now “stabilised at a high level”, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) and the human rights NGO humanrights said in a joint statement.

“It is difficult to say whether racism itself is increasing in Switzerland,” said Nora Riss, head of the Advisory Network, in an interview with the Keystone‑ATS news agency. “These figures reflect reported cases, not comprehensive surveys.” She added that the rise may partly indicate greater awareness of advisory centres and a growing willingness among affected people to seek help.

A separate survey by the Federal Service for Combating Racism found that 17% of Switzerland’s resident population said they had experienced racial discrimination in the past five years. “We still lack systematic monitoring of racialised people,” Riss noted.

Schools and workplaces most affected

Most reported cases involved people aged 26 to 65. As in the previous year, education accounted for the largest share (22%), particularly compulsory schooling. Within this sector, the majority of reports concerned racism against Black people (41%), followed by anti‑Muslim racism (25%) and xenophobia (20%).

The workplace ranked second, accounting for 17% of cases and showing the largest increase year on year, up three percentage points. According to the FCR and humanrights, authority figures such as employers and teachers “do not intervene consistently in racist incidents and fail to ensure adequate protection for those affected”.

Riss said the absence of clear internal procedures may explain the rise in institutional settings. “There should be a designated contact person who can be approached anonymously and who is responsible for mediation,” she said, adding that resolving such cases from outside an organisation is often difficult.

The organisations stressed that the documented cases “represent only the tip of the iceberg”.

Rise in anti‑Muslim racism

The most frequently reported grounds for discrimination remained racism against Black people (33%) and xenophobia (30%). Reports of anti‑Muslim racism rose sharply, reaching 23% in 2025, up from 17% the year before.

Riss attributed part of this increase to the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland joining the advisory network in 2025. She also pointed to chronic underreporting. “Many people are unaware of the advisory centres or do not trust them,” she said. “That may now be starting to change.”

Other reported forms of discrimination included racism against people from the Arab world (9%), people of Asian origin (8%) and antisemitism (5%).

Translated from German with DeepL/sb

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].