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Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur for environmental activists, has criticized the Swiss Federal Council in a letter. He criticizes the federal government for not doing enough to prevent a harassment lawsuit (slapp) against the Basel Bruno Manser Fund.
A spokesperson for the Federal Office for the Environment (Bafu) confirmed receipt of this letter to the Keystone-SDA news agency on Friday. The letter will be answered. Only: There was no information about the time or content.
Forst sent the letter on August 8, 2023 and requested a response by October 7. The letter has now been published on the website of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE).
The Special Rapporteur expresses “deep concern” over several legal actions taken by Malaysian-Canadian business couple Jamilah Taib Murray and Sean Murray and their company Sakto Corporation against the Bruno Manser Fund. The plaintiffs and their representatives in Switzerland would “obviously” use legal proceedings to “silence” the environmental protection organization and its manager Lukas Straumann, writes Michel Forst. The Bruno Manser Fund is prevented from exercising its rights under the Aarhus Convention.
Forst refers to Article 3, paragraph 8 of this UN treaty, which regulates rights in the field of environmental protection. It requires that persons exercising their rights in accordance with this Convention shall not be “punished, prosecuted or harassed” in any way if they do so. The Special Rapporteur writes that he is “deeply concerned” that Switzerland is failing to fulfill its obligation under the Aarhus Convention to ensure that exactly this is prevented.
He calls on the federal government to exhaust all legal resources to prevent so-called limp lawsuits (strategic lawsuits against public participation). He also had to provide information about the ethical guidelines for lawyers in limp lawsuits.
The reason for the letter is various legal actions against the Bruno Manser Fund. The final hearing took place on August 16, 2023 at the Civil Court of Basel-Stadt. The entrepreneurial couple Taib-Murray, represented by the Basel law firm Vischer, sued for alleged violation of personality. The legal dispute has not yet been settled because both parties were unable to reach an agreement during settlement talks.
The background is various publications from the Bruno Manser Fund about Jamilah Taib Murray. She is the daughter of Abdul Taib Mahmud, who was the head of the government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak for 33 years. There, environmental activist Bruno Manser, who went missing in 2005, fought together with the indigenous Penan people against the deforestation of the rainforest. (SDA/oco)
Source:Blick
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