Encouraging young Swiss people to stand up for a Switzerland of colour, #bunteschweiz

Twenty years after the adoption of Switzerland’s anti-racism legislation, the Federal Commission against Racism EKR wants to draw attention to racist and discriminatory behaviour in everyday life. The aim is to make young people in particular aware that racist acts are serious crimes, not minor misdemeanours, and must never be played down.

We reach young people by designing and implementing a peer-to-peer social media campaign. Using #bunteschweiz, we invite young people in Switzerland to take charge of the first official Swiss social media account over a five-month period. Parallel to that, we launch a campaign website in three languages with a range of different offerings.

The media conference for the launch, together with Swiss Federal Council member Alain Berset, generates a high level of media interest. Some 1,500 people take part in a ‘bunte Schweiz day’ in the centre of Bern. The five-month social campaign reaches around 2.6 million users and over 20,000 engagements. The campaign website registers 16,500 visitors in the same period.