Information Platform
humanrights.ch

The Self-Determination Initiative launched by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) in August of 2016 will probably be voted on in autumn/winter of 2018. The authors of the initiative want the Federal Constitution to state that constitutional law takes precedence over international law. They also...

On 12 August 2016 the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) handed in the signatures collected for its people’s initiative, “Swiss law instead of foreign judges” at the Federal Chancellery in Bern. For this occasion, the NGO coalition Schutzfaktor M launched the “Show the Red...

On 10 March 2015, the Swiss People's Party (SVP) officially launched the collection of signatures for their popular initiative against international law. Civil society and political parties oppose this attempt to weaken the role of human rights in Switzerland with arguments and appeals. All...

At their meeting in Rothenthurm on 25 October 2014 the 410 delegates of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) unanimously voted for the launch of the new popular initiative "On the Implementation of Ballots – Swiss Law precedes Foreign Law" . Humanrights.ch has issued a media release on this...

Can Swiss national law prime over international human rights? This question was at the centre of a press conference organised by the working group «Dialogue ECHR» of the NGO platform Human Rights. The answer was provided by a study carried out by the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human...

The termination of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by Switzerland is out of question. In its reply to the parliamentary submission by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the Federal Council reiterated Switzerland's commitment to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and its...

Popular initiatives launched on a federal level will have to undergo stricter checks, the Council of States decided on 29 February 2012 as the second parliamentary chamber. It mandated the Federal Council to draw up a proposal and to define new reasons for the invalidity of popular initiatives. The...

On 31 March 2011, the Federal Council published the long-awaited additional report on the relationship between national and international law in which it suggests a preliminary examination of the content of initiatives by the Federal Office of Justice. In addition, it advocates a broadening of...

Around 200 persons from throughout Switzerland participated in a meeting at the Solothurn Landhaus on 29 May 2010 where they worked out the so-called «Solothurn Convention», which includes 14 strategies for improving basic and human rights in Switzerland. A particular focus of this...

In view of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) attack on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) it is encouraging to see how much support the ECHR and international human rights in general get from political parties, aid organisations and NGOs who organised an information campaign. Joint...