This week, after much political back and forth, Switzerland’s federal government moved close to updating the nation’s laws on sex crimes, including rape. While the need to update the definition of rape, which is central to the legal revision, is uncontested, the details of the changes have proved controversial. Broadly, much of the debate has […]
Swiss fact: 44 Swiss municipalities have changed their official language since 1950
Language is a complicated matter in Switzerland. The nation has four official languages and numerous other languages and dialects. On top of this some Swiss have had to cope with shifting language borders. Between 1860 and 2000, 83 municipalities, known as communes (in French), Einwohnergemeinde1 (in German), comuni (in Italian) and vischnancas (in Romanche), changed their official […]
Parliament rejects use of Swiss-German for official debates
This week, parliament rejected a motion put forward by Lukas Reimann, a member of the Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP) from St. Gallen, to allow the use of Swiss-German in official federal political debates, reported RTS. Switzerland has four national languages, however, many Swiss tend to fluently speak only one of them, although among federal politicians […]
Reports of racial discrimination rise again in Switzerland
In 2022, 708 cases of racial discrimination were reported in Switzerland, 78 more than the year before and more than double the number in 2019, according to an annual report from humanrights.ch The rapid rise in the number reported events partly reflects a rising tendency among the population to respond to racism, says the report. […]
Funky Swiss Alphorn player dies at 39
Eliana Burki, considered by many to be the ambassador the Swiss Alphorn, passed away this week at the age of 39, reported RTS. Burki, who is from the canton of Solothurn, moved to Los Angeles and incorporated the iconic Swiss instrument into the funk and jazz music scene there describing her instrument as her “Funky […]
How Lausanne’s Ukraine Centre is helping Ukrainians help Ukrainians
Within a few weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine over 6,000 refugees had fled to Switzerland’s canton of Vaud. In response, three English speaking churches in Lausanne grouped together with other concerned local residents to set up the Ukraine Day Centre to help the refugees. “The canton was doing its utmost to provide vital […]
The quirky, neglected Swiss astronomer who designed a new way to look at “wicked” problems
By Peter Hulm Remembering a Glarus native who bubbled with new ideas his whole life. Deputy editor of Global Geneve Magazine Peter Hulm reports. Ninety years ago, on 16 February 1933, Fritz Zwicky posited the existence of dark matter. It then took three decades for cosmologists to accept his ideas (three years after his death), […]
Switzerland’s first female minister dies
On 14 April 2023, the death of Elisabeth Kopp, the first woman appointed to the Federal Council, Switzerland’s cabinet, was announced. Elisabeth Kopp, died on Good Friday at the age of 86 after a long illness, reported SRF. The Zurich native was the first female member of the Federal Council after being elected on 2 […]
Swiss population living abroad reaches 800,000
On 6 April 2023, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published figures on Swiss citizens living abroad. According to the report, in 2022, the number of Swiss citizens residing abroad exceeded 800,000, up 1.5% on 2021 and up 34% on 2002. By 2022, 10.9% of Swiss citizens lived outside Switzerland. In Western Europe, Switzerland ranks highly […]
Swiss court rejects case of soldiers fired for refusing Covid vaccine
On 23 March 2023, the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court, rejected a case against the Swiss Army brought by four former special forces soldiers who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. The four military professionals were fired during autumn 2021 by operational command because they were not vaccinated against Covid-19 […]
