This week, the Federal Council recommended voters vote no in the referendum known as the stop compulsory vaccination initiative, scheduled for 9 June 2024, reported SRF. A key criticism of the initiative is that it could make applying and enforcing the law difficult. If it was accepted the consequences would be uncertain for the work […]
Avalanche kills three in Zermatt
On Monday 1 April 2024 shortly after 2 pm, an avalanche at the ski resort of Zermatt killed three people and injured a fourth, reported Valais Police. The avalanche occurred in an off-piste area in the Riffelberg area on the Gornergrat side of the resort. The victims include a 15-year old American, a 25 year […]
The Swiss canton with the highest crime rate
Data published this week reveal Switzerland’s cantonal crime hotspot, a phenomenon connected to geography. In 2023, after a sharp rise, the canton of Basel-City recorded the largest number of violent crimes and the highest per capita rates of theft and burglary. The rate of violent crime reached 13.2 per 1,000 residents in the city in […]
Number of Swiss abroad continues to rise
At the end of 2023, there were 813,400 Swiss citizens living outside Switzerland, more than 11% of the total – 6.5 million citizens lived in Switzerland in 2022. The number of Swiss abroad rose by 13,400 or 1.7% during 2023. Most of the 813,400 lived in Europe (64%), with 26% of total citizens abroad living […]
Swiss assisted suicide in UK news after woman takes her own life
This week a high profile case of assisted suicide in Switzerland made the news in the UK. Paola Marra, a UK woman with terminal cancer, who felt she had no choice but to end her life at Dignitas in Switzerland left behind a video message calling on people to help change the law on assisted […]
Switzerland falls behind in happiness ranking
This year, Switzerland slipped further in the global happiness ranking and is now in 9th place. The year before it was 8th, and two years earlier it was 4th. The ranking is based on polling across the world. It aims to get beyond narrow measures of wellbeing such as GDP and HDI. It gathers a […]
Swiss court acquits defendant in euthanasia trial
In 2017, a Swiss doctor prescribed pentobarbital, a drug used in anesthesia, to a healthy 86-year-old woman who wanted to die alongside her seriously ill husband. Before consulting the doctor, the woman had already signed a notarised document stating that she could not psychologically bear the prospect of living without her husband. Pierre Beck, the […]
Search ends for sixth person missing near Zermatt
On 9 March 2024, six people left Zermatt on skis bound for Arolla on a high mountain path that links Zerrmatt and Verbier known as the Haute Route. Upon reaching the region near the Tête Blanche pass at around 3,500m bad weather rapidly set in. At around 4pm, one member of the group alerted search […]
Switzerland one of the first four nations to celebrate International Women’s Day
The 8th of March is International Women’s Day, an event started in 1911 when Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland celebrated it for the first time. The idea was inspired earlier by movements in the United States and Germany. In 1910, Clara Zetkin, a communist activist and women’s rights advocate in Germany, presented the idea at […]
Switzerland shocked by antisemitic attack
On the evening of 2 March 2024, a 15-year-old naturalised Tunisian boy attacked a 50 year old Orthodox Jewish man with a knife outside a busy bar in Zurich, reported SRF. The man was seriously injured but is now recovering. However, the incident has shaken the public and politicians across the country. Swiss officials have […]
