In Switzerland one name really stands out. At the end of 2018, 82,577 people called Maria were living in Switzerland, almost twice the number with the second most popular female name Anna (41,582), according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. Maria’s secret to success is partly its historical appeal across all of Switzerland’s linguistic […]
Geneva bomb hoax perpetrator must pay 90,000 franc cost
In 2016, a French resident falsely warned that someone was carrying a bomb in the French sector at Geneva airport. Her motive was to prevent her husband and his mistress from departing on holiday to Turkey. In response to the call security staff sprang into action and Geneva police systematically checked all travelers as they […]
Switzerland 5th most skeptical of vaccine safety
A recently published survey by the Wellcome Trust, which surveyed people around the world on their vaccination beliefs, found that 22% of those surveyed in Switzerland strongly or somewhat disagreed that vaccines are safe. Only France (33%), Gabon (26%), Togo (25%) and Russia (24%) had higher percentages of people strongly or somewhat disagreeing that vaccines […]
Violence and harassment against women remains high in Switzerland
In developed nations like Switzerland much progress has been made on women’s rights. However, violence and harassment against women remains high and is one of the reasons why women are striking on 14 June 2019. According to a survey by Amnesty International, 22% of women 16 or over in Switzerland have been subjected to non-consensual […]
Women to go on strike in Switzerland
On Friday, 14 June 2019, women across Switzerland plan to go on strike as part of a global movement calling for gender equality and an end to violence against women. Over the last 10 years, an average of 25 people have been killed annually as a result of domestic violence in Switzerland. 75% of the […]
60,000 imprisoned in Switzerland with no criminal trial
Up until 1981, the Swiss authorities imprisoned thousands of people who were not tried for any crime, under a procedure known as administrative detention. 60,000 were imprisoned, often for years at a time, in this way according to a recent estimate published by RTS. Referred to as a kind of compulsory welfare, people, including men, […]
Switzerland 4th in Eurovision song contest
With his song “She Got Me”, Luca Hänni came fourth in the Eurovision Grand Final in Tel Aviv, Israel on 18 May 2019. The winner was Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands with the song “Arcade”. Winners are selected based on the results of a combination of public tele-votes and votes from a panel of judges […]
Switzerland qualifies for Eurovision final
With his song “She Got Me”, Luca Hänni made it through to the Eurovision Grand Final in Tel Aviv, Israel. Hänni, a 24 year old Swiss singer-songwriter, was born in Bern and taught himself to play guitar and piano at primary school. After school he worked as a bricklayer before giving it up to pursue […]
Switzerland makes some progress on child obesity
Last year, the percentage of children aged 8 to 12 in Switzerland that were obese or overweight fell to 19.3% during the 2017/2018 school year, the lowest it has been in over ten years, according to Promotion Santé Suisse. The number of overweight or obese school children in Switzerland rises with age. During the 2017/2018 […]
Switzerland tops OECD gender index
For the fourth year, the OECD has ranked 120 countries on their political commitments and laws aimed at eliminating gender discrimination. The percentage based scores measure the remaining discrimination, so the lower the score the better. Overall scores range from 8% in Switzerland, down to 64% in Yemen. Some countries had gaps in their data […]
