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Updates on Switzerland

05 June 2008

Switzerland ratified on 12 October 2001, becoming the 43rd State Party.

The Council of States, the second parliamentary Chamber of Switzerland, unanimously endorsed ratification of the Rome Statute on 22 June 2001. It also adopted a Law on Cooperation with the International Criminal Court as well as a modification of the Penal Code and the Military Penal Code.

In April 2008, a press release by TRIAL reported that the Swiss government adopted a draft law introducing crimes against humanity and redefining war crimes. The draft bill, which also redraws the division of competences between the civil and the military jurisdictions, will be transmitted to the Parliament shortly and will be debated this year.

The proposed bill includes a “limited universal jurisdiction” provision, which enables Swiss authorities to investigate crimes committed by individuals abroad, upon condition that the alleged author is present on Swiss territory and can not be extradited nor transferred to an international criminal tribunal.

Finally, the draft clarifies the division of responsibilities between the prosecutorial authorities: the “Ministère public de la Confédération (Public prosecutor’s department)” will be responsible for conducting the cases that the Tribunal pénal federal (Criminal Federal Tribunal) will judge. The military jurisdiction will keep some residual competences.

The message of the Government, as well as the draft law can be found at:

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/etc/medialib/data/sicherheit/gesetzgebung/internationaler_strafgerichtshof.Par.0012.File.tmp/bot-f.pdf

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/etc/medialib/data/sicherheit/gesetzgebung/internationaler_strafgerichtshof.Par.0015.File.tmp/entw-f.pdf