Switzerland: State Protection Bill (feature)
01 July 1996
The State Protection Bill presented by the Swiss Justice and Police Ministry (EJPD) in 1994 was debated in the National Council (the large chamber of Swiss parliament) in June. Compared to the version favoured last year by the Council of States (the smaller parliamentary chamber) the bill has been watered down. While the differences will not be debated until the end of the year it is already clear that the practices of the political police, which gave rise to the state protection scandal in 1989, will be legalised. When the law comes into force the right of access to state protection files (political police records), will be abolished. On the issue of the right of access the conservative majority in parliament favours the "British version".
In 1989 about 6.5 million people were living in Switzerland. The Federal Police (BUPO) had collected files on about 900.000 people, most of them were not suspected of having committed any offence. This was highlighted by the parliamentary enquiry commission in November 1989. The commission report led to the "Fichenaffäre" - the revelation of the index cards held in the state protection scandal - and led to widespread protests. Two conclusions were drawn by the left: It launched a campaign for the abolition of the political police and the demand for complete access to index cards ("Fichen") and files ("Dossiers").
Within three months, 350,000 people had formally asked whether they were registered which turned out to be the case in more than 10% of the enquiries. Since 1990 about 40,000 people and organizations have received a censored and partly "blacked out" copy of their index cards. It was another campaign in 1992/93 which led to the restricted access to the files, which contained much more detail, connected to the index cards. Plans by Justice Minister Koller for the destruction of files were stopped, but people had to present another request for access, claiming a "more than minor interest" or an ideal or material damage. The censoring of cards and files by which, for example, information coming from foreign police or secret services were kept in secret, meant that the whole process of disclosure took six years. Despite these restrictions, the Swiss left thus has achieved the most extensive opening of political police archives ever achieved in western Europe.
Modernisation and computerization
In dealing with the popular initiative the Federal Council (the government) hoped that protests over the files would disappear. The campaign for the abolition of the political police was presented in 1991 and signed by more than 100,000 citizens. Its aim is to introduce a new article 65bis into the federal constitution: "The political police is to be abolished. Nobody shall be observed in the exercise of his ideas or political rights. The prosecution of offences is unaffected."
A date for voting on the initiative has still not been agreed. Instead of allowing a popular vote on the question of abolition of the political police the Ministry of Justice wanted to go ahead with the computerization and modernization of the state protection agencies and the police in general as well as a detailed legalisation of its practices. The Swiss police thus passed through a similar process to other European countries.
The activities of police and prosecution authorities in Switzerland are based almost entirely on the criminal code and the criminal procedures of the cantons and the confederation. Under these the agencies of the Confederation are only authorised to deal with political offences (high treason, explosives) and in drugs matters. In the latter the Federal Prosecutor's office and the subordinate Federal Office of Police (BAP) are in competition with the cantonal prosecutors and police forces. With the Federal Law on the central services of criminal police, in force since 1995, a central service for combatting organized crime was created alongside the existing central drugs