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Bern backs harsher sentence for homegrown terrorists

Swiss citizens who engage in terrorist activities abroad should get a minimum of ten years in prison, the federal government has said.

Published: 11 March 2016 10:46 CET
Bern backs harsher sentence for homegrown terrorists
The Swiss parliament building in Bern. Photo: OFCL

The lower house of parliament on Thursday voted by a narrow majority to increase the severity of punishment for homegrown terrorists.

The current sentence of three years in prison or a fine is “clearly insufficient”, said Christian Democrat MP Ida Glanzmann-Hunkeler, reports news agency ATS.

Punishment should act as a deterrent to stop Swiss citizens travelling abroad to join terrorist groups, she added.

Others disagreed with imposing a ten-year minimum sentence, saying such actions are already covered by the Swiss military penal code, which forbids all military service abroad.

As such, when a Swiss engages in war crimes, crimes against humanity or other serious criminal activities abroad, they are already infringing the military criminal code, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, defence minister Guy Parmelin said.

At the same time, the house rejected an initiative to step up surveillance measures to identify potential extremists in Switzerland.

Supporters of the initiative called for the country to improve the surveillance of terrorist groups on social media to identify cases of incitement to violence, but Parmelin said the government had already reinforced its internet surveillance measures last year.

According to the government, while the tools available to anti-terrorist services in Switzerland may seem modest compared with other countries, they respect citizens’ fundamental legal rights, reported ATS.

The issue of radicalization on home soil is a major concern for the Swiss federal government.

In December Switzerland announced its intention to create 86 new jobs dedicated to combatting terrorism, shared between the country’s national intelligence services, federal police, migration services and border guards.

Last October Switzerland signed up to a European protocol aiming to prevent people from travelling to join terror groups such as Islamic State.

The amendment to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism criminalizes early preparations for terrorist activities under international law. 

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Top Europe rights court to issue landmark climate verdicts

Europe's top rights court will on Tuesday issue unprecedented verdicts in three separate cases on the responsibility of states in the face of global warming, rulings that could force governments to adopt more ambitious climate policies.

Published: 7 April 2024 12:48 CEST
Top Europe rights court to issue landmark climate verdicts

The European Court of Human Rights, part of the 46-member Council of Europe, will rule on whether governments’ climate change policies are violating the European Convention on Human Rights, which it oversees.

All three cases accuse European governments of inaction or insufficient action in their measures against global warming.

In a sign of the importance of the issue, the cases have all been treated as priority by the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, the court’s top instance, whose 17 judges can set a potentially crucial legal precedent.

It will be the first time the court has issued a ruling on climate change.

While several European states, including France, have already been condemned by domestic courts for not fulfilling commitments against global warming, the ECHR could go further and make clear new fundamental rights.

The challenge lies in ensuring “the recognition of an individual and collective right to a climate that is as stable as possible, which would constitute an important legal innovation”, said lawyer and former French environment minister Corinne Lepage, who is defending one of the cases.

‘Turning point’ 

The court’s position “may mark a turning point in the global struggle for a liveable future,” said lawyer Gerry Liston, of the NGO Global Legal Action Network (GLAN).

“A victory in any of the three cases could constitute the most significant legal development on climate change for Europe since the signing of the Paris 2015 Agreement” that set new targets for governments to reduce emissions, he said.

Even if the Convention does not contain any explicit provision relating to the environment, the Court has already ruled based on Article 8 of the Convention — the right to respect for private and family life — an obligation of States to maintain a “healthy environment”, in cases relating to waste management or industrial activities.

Of the three cases which will be decided on Tuesday, the first is brought by the Swiss association of Elders for Climate Protection — 2,500 women aged 73 on average — and four of its members who have also put forward individual complaints.

They complain about “failings of the Swiss authorities” in terms of climate protection, which “would seriously harm their state of health”.

Damien Careme, former mayor of the northern French coastal town of Grande-Synthe, in his case attacks the “deficiencies” of the French state, arguing they pose a risk of his town being submerged under the North Sea.

In 2019, he already filed a case at France’s Council of State — its highest administrative court — alleging “climate inaction” on the part of France.

The court ruled in favour of the municipality in July 2021, but rejected a case he’d brought in his own name, leading Careme to take it to the ECHR.

‘For benefit of all’

The third case was brought by a group of six Portuguese, aged 12 to 24, inspired to act after fires ravaged their country in 2017.

Their case is not only against Portugal, but also 31 other states (every EU country, plus Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Russia).

Almost all European countries belong to the Council of Europe, not just EU members.

Russian was expelled from the COE after its invasion of Ukraine but cases against Moscow are still heard at the court.

The ECHR hears cases only when all domestic appeals have been exhausted. Its rulings are binding, although there have been problems with compliance of certain states such as Turkey.

The three cases rely primarily on articles in the Convention that protect the “right to life” and the “right to respect for private life”.

However, the Court will only issue a precedent-setting verdict if it determines that these cases have exhausted all remedies at the national level.

The accused states tried to demonstrate this is not the case during two hearings held in 2023.

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