A group of United Nations experts on Tuesday protested to Bern after students were sentenced for trespassing after taking part in pro-Palestinian protests at a Swiss-funded university.

“Peaceful student activism, on and off campus, is part of students’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and must not be criminalized,” 10 independent UN experts said in a statement.

The experts pointed to criminal penalties sought by the publicly funded Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) as mass student protests over the Gaza war rocked universities in many countries in May 2024.

Around 70 students had staged sit-ins at ETHZ, demanding “a stance against genocide, an academic boycott of Israel and full transparency in terms of [the school’s] co-operation with Israeli institutions.”

Israel adamantly rejects accusations that it committed genocide in Gaza, and says it has made efforts to avoid killing civilians in its fight against Hamas, which it accuses of embedding among noncombatants.

The UN experts, including the special........

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