A Child vs. Switzerland

In September 2021, the Committee on the Rights of the Child found Switzerland’s decision to expel a Syrian mother and her stateless child in violation of ten articles of the convention.

“… the strength of a people is measured by the well-being of its weakest members” -Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation, Preamble[1]

“I recently won a case,” my cousin says as we sit down for lunch, “defending a child.”

“A child vs Switzerland?” I ask.

Boris reminds me of Atticus Finch, the lawyer in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In his early fifties, he even has the looks of Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation. Serene, tall, slender, with the forward leaning gesture of the engaged, compassionate listener. Like Atticus.

I’m intrigued. As a human rights lawyer, he doesn’t often win cases. Boris and I are cousins on our mothers’ side. Both sisters were born in Spain, one married a Swede, the other a Colombian. We both married Swiss nationals, became Swiss citizens and live in Geneva. A few years back, he created a human-rights centre in Geneva, the Centre Suisse pour la Défense des droits des Migrants (CSDM).

“Well,” he says, “A Syrian mother and her eleven-year-old child escaped the Syrian war. The child was born stateless in a refugee camp. The father was abducted by the…