Is Switzerland dragging its feet in criminalising torture?<\/a><\/p>\nGiven this exemplary record, how can it be that Switzerland has still not adopted a specific torture offence?<\/p>\n
At the time of ratification, the Federal Council held that existing offences \u2013 bodily harm, coercion, abuse of authority, unlawful detention \u2013 were sufficient to cover acts of torture. The UN Committee against Torture (CAT), which has contested this view for nearly thirty years, argues, on the contrary, that a specific offence is essential to cover methods that leave few or no traces, such as prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, or mock executions.\u00a0On top of this, the committee also argues that Switzerland\u2019s current framework lacks any deterrent effect, provides for inadequate statutes of limitations, and complicates mutual legal assistance.<\/p>\n
Beyond the committee’s objections<\/p>\n
Yet these objections are not the only reasons to legislate.<\/p>\n
To begin with, the prohibition of torture forms part of jus cogens \u2013 peremptory norms of international law from which no derogation is permitted. Torture is an act carrying particular opprobrium, aimed at breaking down the victim\u2019s personality. As CAT\u2019s US expert Todd Buchwald reminded the Swiss delegation in 2023, it occurs \u201cwhen one penetrates the darkest corner of unconscionable behaviour\u201d.\u00a0Its criminal repression is thus anything but incidental.<\/p>\n
Second, Switzerland has always taken an incomplete reading of the convention. “The treaty\u2019s original ambition was never to establish a new prohibition on torture, which had already been prohibited under the major human rights treaties adopted after the Second World War. Its distinctive contribution lies in establishing a framework combining universal jurisdiction and mutual legal assistance to prevent torturers from evading justice by seeking refuge in another state.\u00a0Without a specific offence, Swiss criminal authorities still lack a clear legal basis to prosecute foreign suspects present on Swiss territory.<\/p>\n
Third, a specific offence would facilitate prosecutions. Torture is admittedly already punishable under Swiss law as a war crime or crime against humanity, but these categories require proof of an armed conflict or a widespread attack against the civilian population. They also carry considerable political and historical weight, whereas a specific offence would allow prosecutions to focus directly on acts of torture. Many acts of torture, even those directed against large numbers of people, occur outside such contexts. This was the case, for instance, with the indiscriminate beating of protesters by police officers at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001, for which Italy was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2015.<\/p>\n
An unfinished debate<\/p>\n
In the face of the federal administration’s resistance, national councillor Beat Flach introduced a parliamentary initiative in December 2020 to close this gap.\u00a0Despite opposition voiced by some cantons during the five-month consultation procedure, which ran until April 2025, the Swiss parliamentary committee tasked with handling the proposed bill\u00a0recently expressed confidence that these objections can be overcome. Following the example of France and Italy, it has opted for an offence covering acts committed by private individuals as well \u2013 a solution that should also help address violence by organised crime.<\/p>\n
Yet, nothing is settled.\u00a0On 19 June, the National Council, the Swiss parliament\u2019s lower house, extended the deadline for processing the initiative by a further two years \u2013 for the second time. The ball is now in the court of the government, which must deliver a consolidated draft law incorporating the results of the consultation. After four decades of discussing the need for a specific criminal offence against torture, it is time to shift the debate from whether such a norm should exist to what it should actually contain.<\/p>\n
Etienne Cottier is head of advocacy at ACAT-Switzerland, a Swiss NGO working for the abolition of torture and the death penalty, where he coordinates a coalition of NGOs and experts pushing for the criminalisation of torture under Swiss law.<\/p>\n
Geneva Solutions publishes opinions and columns proposed by or requested from external contributors and experts. These texts reflect the point of view of their authors and do not represent the position of the media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In June, Swiss parliament extended the deadline for drafting a bill to specifically criminalise torture. Four decades after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[51389,17,51390],"class_list":["post-104444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-international-justice","tag-switzerland","tag-torture"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116933351553371161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}