Toward gender equality in the Swiss army: A new initiative to revive the idea of compulsory military service for women
GHRTV
Idil Igdir
03-05-2022
Women’s Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
Currently, military service is compulsory in Switzerland for all young men with Swiss citizenship. Thus, women and foreign residents are exempted from this obligation. Swiss women can always do it voluntarily, however, the ratio remains low. But with the Federal Council setting out a number of options for the reform of military service in the country and with the launch, on April 26, 2022, of the new initiative by Service Citoyen for universal community service, an important step for gender equality is on the way as women are included this time (LE NEWS, 2022).
The idea of expanding the scope of participation in military service has been a long-running project in Switzerland. It was appeared in 2017 by the current Defense Attaché in Washington, Daniel Baumgartner, with the support of Guy Parmelin, Federal councillor and head of the department of defence, civil protection and sports (LE News, 2017). And now, as Europe faces war at close range for the first time since two devastating world wars, the Federal Council is reconsidering the idea of compulsory military service for women in its new reform options. The government said on March 4, 2022, “by the end of the decade, the military will struggle to sustain the actual strength of 140,000 troops if early departures cannot be reduced substantially” (MA RTS, 2022). For this reason, the Federal Council aims to make a change with a new military reform by 2024 in order to strengthen the defence and have more trained people.
In Switzerland, the federal popular initiative is an instrument of direct democracy that refers to the direct participation of its citizens to propose changes to the Swiss Federal Constitution. It requires collecting valid 100,000 signatures in 18 months. Thus, as a new initiative was launched last Tuesday to create a compulsory universal service for men, women and foreign residents, “vote organisers have until 26 October 2023 to collect the 100,000 signatures required to launch a referendum” (LE NEWS, 2022).
Sources and Further Reading:
Le News. (2022, April 29). New initiative aims to create compulsory universal service for men, women and foreign residents. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://lenews.ch/2022/04/29/new-initiative-aims-to-create-compulsory-community-service-for-swiss-men-women-and-foreign-residents/
Le News. (2022, March 11). Compulsory Swiss military service: reform options include women. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://lenews.ch/2022/03/11/compulsory-military-service-swiss-government-presents-reform-options/
Le News. (2017, May 30). Could compulsory military service be extended to Swiss women?. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://lenews.ch/2017/05/30/could-compulsory-military-service-be-extended-to-swiss-women/
24 Heures. Le service militaire pourrait devenir obligatoire pour les femmes. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.24heures.ch/le-service-militaire-pourrait-devenir-obligatoire-pour-les-femmes-333667462012
