Human rights under threat in Switzerland?

31.07.2018 ( Last modified: 19.12.2018 )

An initiative proposes that the Swiss Constitution should prevail over international law. A scenario with potentially disastrous consequences for human rights, which TRIAL strongly opposes.

The initiative provides, inter alia, the possibility for Switzerland to ignore decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights. This institution is described by its detractors as “foreign justice”, but on the contrary constitutes a safeguard against State arbitrariness, and ensures compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

If the initiative were voted, Switzerland would waive its main international human rights instrument. In doing so, it will deprive its citizens whose rights have been violated by the highest national authority of a final judicial avenue.

Philip Grant, Director of TRIAL International, is outraged: “We have defended victims in Bosnia, Congo, Nepal and elsewhere for years. At this moment, they must think we are crazy: ‘You have patiently built a system that guarantees and protects your freedoms, and now you want to get rid of it?’ International conventions protect us. To renounce them comes down to renouncing our rights and attacking our freedoms.

To oppose this initiative, TRIAL International has joined the Comité romand : non à l’initiative anti-droits humains (No to the anti-human rights initiative), which calls on the Swiss to vote NO on 25 November 2018.

More information about the campaign (in French)

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