Report confirms Swiss lied to Council of Europe: Transparency & Electronic Communication
Switzerland filed a self-review to the Council of Europe in 2018. A EU report was published on September 27th showing Switzerland lied. Crystel Graf receives a seat.
The Swiss self assessment report to the Council of Europe (CoE) was discussed in the series on electronic communication. It put into light the difference between what Switzerland claims to its CoE partners and the reality.
The EU has used a different approach. The EU used real world case scenario's and asked mystery shoppers, individual people, to try and see what the reality is like on the ground. So the EU report is a more realistic, real world account, based on experience.
Before we delve into things, let's be clear. Between the Swiss self assessment in 2018 and the report released this week, there are a few years, during which one would expect the country to improve, not regress. Therefrom stems additional confirmation the Swiss lied to their CoE partners.
the Swiss in Europe digital maturity map
It immediately shows in easy to understand colouring something is wrong in Switzerland.
the Swiss patting their back: good job!
The Swiss federal bureau of Digital Administration (L'Administration numérique suisse) (BDA) :
coordinates the steering of digital transformation between and within the various institutional levels, and enables the stakeholders concerned to express their views and participate in decision-making. It creates added value for the population, the economy and public administrations, and encourages collaboration between all levels of government. (Translation)
The BDA's press release on the EU eGovernment Benchmark 2023 report goes on listing the great achievements by Switzerland, whilst having to admit it overall ends 29th place out of 35. In reality, Switzerland went from 28th position last year to 29th position this year. Whilst the average of all countries shows fulfilment of electronic society obligations at 70%, Switzerland contends with 57%. On average.
A few basic factsheets from the report can be found here.
the skeet
On Bluesky famous Swiss journalist Eric Guevara-Frey skeeted on September 21st how fantastic and modern the Swiss public services are, stating it took him 6 minutes from request to obtaining his shiny new passport.
the numbers
In the various documents you can see Switzerland's position among the 35 country report:
- 7th worst in digital maturity of government; Only 17% of Switzerland's online services meets the EU basic criteria!
- 5th worst in transparency of government; It is among the countries deemed to not respect transparency in delivering services, or using personal data, of citizens. Let alone what they do with non-citizens.
- 2nd worst in family life; Only Montenegro does worse.
- shares 10th worst in electronic communication with Greece.
A few more numbers:
electronic communication
Switzerland is the 10th worst country when it comes to electronic communication, specified as digital post.
80% of countries offers a delivery confirmation of electronic communication. Switzerland does not, and as such is part of the 20% rotten apples.
For online notifying or complaining about personal data being erroneous, 84% is the average among all countries, and in 79% can be self modified online. Here again, Switzerland does the opposite. It only allows for requesting the data, with the judicial system being the only recourse when the request for access or correction of information is declined (see various posts).
Now, I've left the score of Switzerland justice system out. Because I find it deserves extra special attention in view of its 2018 self assessment lies to its CoE partners.
The 2018 report puts Switzerland as the incontestable leader in digitalisation of the justice system.
The 2023 report puts Switzerland 6th worst out of 35, with only 44% corresponding to the EU norm.
Crystel Graf to the rescue
The Neuchatel minister Crystel Graf (CG) is responsible for child protection, data protection and Digital Administration. She pops up ad nauseam on the blog, as she is the politician responsible for the wrongdoing by omission to act when duly informed.
She is one of the persons who, among others, is violating electronic communication law, every week. As responsible minister, one must believe to not be subject to the law.
Meet the press release on twitter/X announcing CF gets a seat at the BDO. Notice the date of the EU report: 27 September. Notice the date of the press release: 27 September.
my conclusion
I'll let everyone make their own conclusions. To me, it would appear there is the need for people in power doing wrong to sit at arms length in order to cover up more easily, and the press has a need to speak of the country's modernity and superiority, while the reality is grim.
When:
- the 2nd power, the executive, covers up; and
- the 4th power, the press, fails; and
- the third power, justice, plays along …
How do you want such a country to not be corrupt?
Tags: #Rights #Accesstojustice
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. This blog gets the proverbial pants on!
information provided as is, without prejudice, without any prejudicial recognition, and with reservation of all rights, expressly without recognition of any Swiss competence which remains contested
for the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, all information on this blog, such as but not limited to documents and/or audio recordings and/or video recordings and/or pictures mentioned, have been made and/or collected, and published, in the interest of justice and the public at large
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to everything on this blog
the Universal Right to Truth principle applies to everything on this blog