Switzerland’s military conscription currently offers young men an alternative: civilian service for those unwilling to bear arms. Yet this freedom of choice is now under political scrutiny. Several legislative proposals under discussion in parliament aim to make civilian service less appealing, according to Swiss public broadcaster SRF. Among them is a call to reinstate the long-abandoned “conscience test”—a bureaucratic process once used to scrutinise applicants’ pacifist claims.
The test, in place until 2009, involved a three-member state-appointed panel charged with probing the moral convictions of conscripts who sought exemption from military service on grounds of conscientious objection. Costly and cumbersome, the system was scrapped after most applicants were approved and administrative costs ran into the millions. It was replaced by a simpler mechanism: extended civilian service, which lasts 1.5 times longer than military duty.
The number of men opting for civilian service has since surged. Where once 1,000–2,000 made the switch each year, the figure now hovers around 7,000. This shift has alarmed Switzerland’s military establishment. That’s an entire brigade lost annually, according to Stefan Holenstein, president of the Swiss Military Review Association. He blames the ease of the process. A few clicks, and you’re out, he said.
Switzerland’s armed forces are bracing for a shortage. The defence ministry projects a shortfall of personnel by 2030, driven by demographic shifts and a 2004 reform that cut the total length of compulsory military service from 12 to 10 years. To address this, military advocates such as Holenstein want to reinstate the conscience test and eliminate what they describe as a de facto freedom to choose civilian over military service.
Under the former system, applicants were required to prove that military service was fundamentally incompatible with their conscience—an inherently subjective test, but one that discouraged many from even applying.
Critics of the proposed return to the old system argue it is both outdated and counterproductive. Luca Dahinden, director of Civiva, a civilian service advocacy group, warns that reintroducing the test would dissuade legitimate applicants and push others to seek medical disqualification as a workaround. You can’t turn back the clock, he said. People would simply avoid the process or feign unfitness.
Whether parliament opts to restore the conscience test or find new ways to bolster recruitment, the underlying issue remains: how to maintain a conscript army in a country where the will of young men to serve appears to be waning?
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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