(12 February 2025)

 On 7 March 2021, the Swiss people and the cantons had already voted in a referendum on the popular initiative bill that, a few years after similar local legislation in Canton Ticino and Canton St. Gallen, extended the ban on wearing the burka and niqab to the entire Swiss Confederation[1].

The approval of the referendum resulted in a new article in the Federal Constitution (Article 10A, which provides for a ban on covering the face) and an implementing federal law, which came into force on 1 January 2025.

In addition to the exceptions provided for in the law - use is permitted on board civil aircraft (in Switzerland or abroad), in embassies and consulates, in places of worship, and in cases of local customs, artistic or entertainment purposes, and also advertising purposes - further exceptions may be added that may be authorized by the competent authority.

Finally, the law provides that any violations are punished with fines of up to CHF 1,000[2].

The ban on the niqab and burqa in public places, which follows the similar case on the 2009 popular referendum[3] for the constitutionalizing of the ban on building minarets[4], is inspired by French law no. 2010-1192 of 11 October 2010 ‘interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l'espace public’[5]: the prohibition on covering one's face, in fact, concerns not only streets or public squares, but also administrative structures, public service establishments such as the Post Office or the railways, as well as private establishments open to the public for the purchase of goods and services (restaurants, shopping centres, cinemas, etc.). 

It should also be recalled, however, that forcing a woman to wear the burqa or niqab against her will is already sanctioned by Article 181 of the Swiss Penal Code, as a crime of coercion[6].

The introduction of the new article in the Federal Constitution, therefore, is due to a popular referendum, since the Federal Council had always rejected similar legislative proposals, claiming that such a ban would violate religious freedom, protected by Article 15 of the Federal Constitution[7] and Article 9 of the ECHR[8].

It is a right of freedom that can only be restricted under the conditions of Art. 36 of the Federal Constitution, according to which restrictions on fundamental rights must be provided for by law (§1), must be justified on the basis of a public interest or the protection of the fundamental rights of third parties (§ 2), must comply with the principle of proportionality (§3) and, finally, must not impair the essential content of fundamental rights (§4) [9]. To these requirements must be added, of course, those of Article 9(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights[10].

The wide range of factors characterizing this new case introduced into the Swiss Federal Constitution seems worthy of further study[11].

Before the prohibition introduced by the new legislation, however, the Federal Supreme Court had already pronounced itself[12], affirming that the wearing of religious symbols, such as the burqa and the niqab, is an expression of faith and of the relationship that each believer has with the divine or the transcendent, and therefore falls within the scope of protection of Article 15 of the Federal Constitution[13] and Article 9 ECHR[14], regardless of whether it is shared by all, by a majority or only by a minority of members of the faith concerned[15].

The further element to be taken into consideration in assessing the legitimacy of the compression of religious freedom, as of fundamental rights in general, is the presence of sufficiently important interests, which Article 36 of the Federal Constitution indicates in the public interest or the protection of the fundamental rights of third parties.

In this regard, we can recall the similar case of France, which enacted Law No. 2010-1192 of 11 October 2010 on the prohibition of covering one's face[16], and it was the ECHR itself that recognised a legitimate public interest in the prohibition of covering one's face in spaces accessible to the public[17].

Indeed, the ECtHR emphasises in this judgment how the preservation of vivre ensemble translates into the right of people in general to communicate in public space, which facilitates social interaction, whereas, on the contrary, ‘the isolation that the veil hiding one's face expresses in relation to others may be considered by the State concerned as an interference with the right of others to move about in a space of social encounter that facilitates coexistence”[18], and therefore Strasbourg considers that the prohibition on covering one's face may be considered justified in principle insofar as it is aimed at guaranteeing the conditions of “coexistence” [19].

Furthermore, in this ruling, the ECHR emphasises the respect of each Member State's margin of appreciation.

The new Swiss federal constitutional provision is therefore in line with the legislation already in force in France[20] and Belgium[21], demonstrating that ‘it would be very easy to say that politics and religion proceed on different levels, that it is better to keep them separate. This is in fact not the case, because both deal with the life of man, immanently the one, transcendently the other, that is, responding to two different needs”[22].

Marzia Maria Fede

[1] See Maria d’Arienzo, Le sfide della multiculturalità e la dimensione religiosa, in Flavia Abbondante, Salvatore Prisco, Diritto e pluralismo culturale. I mille volti della convivenza, Editoriale Scientifica, Napoli, 2015, p. 45 ff.; Paul Kaushik, Banning Islamic Veils: Is Social Cohesion (or Living Together) a Valid Argument?, in Journal of law and religion, 2024, p. 34 ff.

[2] Federal Law on the Prohibition of Facial Concealment (LDDV) of 29 September 2023, in force since 1 January 2025: https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2024/620/it.

[3] https://www.bk.admin.ch/ch/i/pore/va/20091129/index.html, see Antonia Baraggia, Il referendum svizzero contro l’edificazione di minareti, in Quaderni costituzionali, 2010, p. 126 ss.; Cecilia Sanna, Sovranità popolare e diritti umani in Svizzera: l’iniziativa federale contro l’edificazione dei minareti, in Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2010, p. 644 ff.

[4] Art. 72 § 3 federal Constitution: “L’edificazione di minareti è vietata”, see Vincenzo Pacillo, ‘Stopp Minarett’? The Controversy over the Building of Minarets in Switzerland: Religious Freedom versus Collective Identity, in Silvio Ferrari, Sabrina Pastorelli (a cura di), Religion in public spaces: a european Perspective, Ashgate, Farham, 2012, p. 337 ss.; Lorenz Langer, Panacea or Pathetic Fallacy? The Swiss Ban on Minarets, in Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 2018, p. 863 ss.; Rachid Benzine, Le minaret dans l’histoire de l’Islam, in Aa.Vv., Les minarets de la discorde: éclairage sur un débat suisse et européen, Gollion, Paris, 2009, p. 25 ff.

[5] See Agnès de Féo, The niqab in France: between piety and subversion, Fordham University Press, New York, 2024, p. 49 ff.; Raphael Cohen-Almagor, The republic, secularism and security: France versus the burqa and the niqab, Springer, Berlin, p. 33 ff.

[6] “Whoever, by using violence or threatening serious harm against a person, or by otherwise obstructing that person’s freedom of action, compels that person to do, omit or tolerate an act, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of up to three years or to a fine”, https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/54/757_781_799/it.

[7] https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1999/404/it#art_15.

[8] https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/convention_ita.

[9] https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1999/404/it#art_36.

[10] Entered into force in Switzerland on 28 November 1974, https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1974/2151_2151_2151/it.

[11] Cfr. Claudia Bianca Ceffa, Giorgio Grasso, «Un velo sulla Costituzione». Il divieto di dissimulazione del viso entra a far parte della Costituzione federale Svizzera: una sfida inedita per il diritto costituzionale europeo?, in DPCE online, 2021, p. 307 ff., https://www.dpceonline.it/index.php/dpceonline/article/view/1247/1278.

[12] Maria Paola Viviani Schlein, Il problema delle manifestazioni di credo religioso nella vita pubblica in Svizzera, in DPCE, 2005, p. 235 ff.; Thierry Tanquerel, L’expression religieuse sur le domaine public en Suisse, in Frédéric Bernard, Eleanor McGregor, Diane-Emmanuelle Grisel (a cura di), Etudes en l’honneur de Tristan Zimmermann: Constitution et religion, les droits de l’homme,  Schulthess, Genève, 2017, p. 245 ff.

[13] Federal Tribunal, judgement no. 139/I/280, dell’11 luglio 2013, in https://entscheide.weblaw.ch/cache.php?link=BGE-139-I-280&q=&sel_lang=it.

[14] Federal Tribunal, judgement no. 1D/12/2007, del 27 febbraio 2008, in https://entscheide.weblaw.ch/cache.php?link=BGE-139-I-280&q=&sel_lang=it.

[15] See Mario Patrono, Antonio Spadaro, Il problema del ‘fondamento’ dei diritti ‘fondamentali’, in Diritto e Società, 1991, p. 453 ff.

[16] https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000022911670.

[17] CEDU, Grande Chambre, Affaire S.A.S. vs France, 4 July 2014, in https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-145240, n. 116.

[18] Ibidem.

[19] Ivi, no. 142.

[20] See Maria d’Arienzo, La “religione della laicità” nella Costituzione francese, in Paolo Becchi, Vincenzo Pacillo,Sull’invocazione a Dio nella Costituzione federale e nelle Carte fondamentali europee, Eupress, Lugano, 2013, p. 139 ff.; Patrick Valdrini, Il principio di laicità nel diritto francese. Neutralità dello Stato e libertà dei cittadini, in Ephemerides Iuris Canonici, 2015, p. 39 ff.; Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli, L’antica idea di separazione, in AA.VV., Individuo, gruppi, confessioni religiose nello Stato democratico, Giuffrè, Milano, 1973, p. 975 ff.

[21] Loi visant à interdire le port de tout vêtement cachant totalement ou de manière principale le visage, Ier juin 2011, in https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/loi/2011/06/01/2011000424/justelgifr; see François Foret, Virginie Riva, France et Belgique face àl’heritage chrétien de l’Europe: stratégies politiques et renegotiations des identités nationales, in Aa.Vv., Politique et religion en France et en Belgique: l’héritage chrétien en question, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 2009, p. 179 ff.; Robert Hamaiade, L’affirmation de la laïcité en Belgique, in Hervé Hasquin (ed.), Histoire de la laïcité, principalement en Belgique et en France, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 1979, p. 257 ff.; Hervé Hasquin, Inscrire la Laïcité dans la Constitution belge?, Éditions de l’Académie royale de Belgique, Bruxelles, 2016, p. 49 ff.

[22] Mario Tedeschi, Politica, religione e diritto ecclesiastico, in Diritto di Famiglia e della Persona, 1996, p. 1524.