On 1 January, legislation entered into force imposing a fine of up to CHF 1,000 for covering one’s face in public places other than places of worship. The law provides exceptions for artistic, health, and other reasons, but not for religious reasons. In a 2021 referendum, 51.2 per cent of voters supported a public initiative to ban face coverings. The public initiative was spearheaded by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party and led to the introduction of a new article to the constitution that prohibits face coverings, and the drafting of the Federal Act on the Prohibition of Face Coverings which entered into force in January. In 2021, the Islamic Central Council in Switzerland (IZR) commented that the decision expands legal inequality and sends a signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority. Although Muslims make up approximately 5.7 per cent of the Swiss population, the law impacts only a small number of people, as very few wear burkas or niqabs, according to a 2020 study by the University of Lucerne.  

Sources: NPR, Federal Statistical Office, Islamic Central Council (IZR) (1), Islamic Central Council (IZR) (2), University of Lucerne, Fedlex 

Investigative journalists alleged in September that companies contracted by campaigns to collect signatures for popular initiatives falsified signatures. The Citizen Service (Service Citoyen), an association promoting civic engagement, filed a criminal complaint in June 2023 after noticing irregularities in the list of signatures collected by a company for their campaign.  The Office of the Attorney General and the police have opened a fraud investigation. On 6 September, the Council of States, the upper house of the legislature, separately initiated an examination of the role of the Federal Chancellery, which oversees national elections and verifies the legality of initiatives and referendums. Politicians are calling for reform to protect the integrity of the collection process, including renewed calls for a ban on commercial signature collection (which has been tested at the cantonal level in the past), as well as for electronically verified signature collection.  

Sources: The Federal Assembly, SwissInfo (1), SwissInfo (2), RTS, Service Citoyen 

Parliament has urged no further action to implement the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s April ruling which stated that Switzerland is violating the rights of senior women by failing to protect them from the negative consequences of climate change. The final decision on whether to comply with the decision is expected to be announced by the Federal Council in August, as the branch of government responsible for preparing an action plan to execute the ruling. A declaration, prepared by the Legal Affairs Committee and adopted by both parliamentary houses, criticizes the ECHR ruling for “inappropriate and unacceptable judicial activism,” which, according to the declaration, risks calling the Court’s legitimacy into question. The declaration concludes that there is no reason to take further action on the ECHR’s ruling, claiming it already has an effective climate strategy. The ECHR’s ruling is binding, and leaves it open to Swiss policymakers to remedy the inadequate protections. In response, the NGO that brought the case before the ECHR, KlimaSeniorinnen, launched a petition, collecting over 22,000 signatures to urge MPs to respect the ruling and protect the European Convention on Human Rights.

Sources: International IDEA, BBC, SWR, Swiss Parliament, KlimaSeniorinnen, SRF, EJIL Talk

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in favour of the association KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of older Swiss women who took action against Switzerland for failing to implement measures to stop climate change. On 9 April, the ECHR found that Switzerland has failed to protect senior women from the negative impacts of climate change, including for their health, in violation of the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights). The judgment also ruled that Switzerland violated the rights of KlimaSeniorinnen to access a court and pointed to the failure of Swiss authorities to carry out a substantive examination of the alleged violations. The ECHR is the first international court to uphold a human rights-based claim to climate protection. The Court leaves it open to Swiss policymakers to remedy the inadequate protections.

Sources: The Guardian (1), The Guardian (2), ECHR (1), ECHR (2), SwissInfo, KlimaSeniorinnen