Swiss petition demands CHF350 million for women’s safety

Petition demands 350 million francs for women's safety Keystone-SDA

Campaigners in Switzerland are demanding CHF350 million ($395 million) for the safety of women from violence. A petition was submitted to the Federal Chancellery in Bern on Monday with over 21,400 signatures.

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The petition demands that the government finally allocate sufficient resources to combat gender-based violence. The money should be used for better protection against violence, consistent prosecution and prevention, it says.

More than 90 NGOs, specialist organisations, collectives, trade unions and political parties are behind the petition, as Brava – formerly Terre des Femmes – wrote when the petition was handed in.

In the first three months of this year, 11 women were killed in Switzerland, twice as many as in the same period last year, Brava wrote. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, which Switzerland ratified in 2018, remains inadequate, the petitioners criticised.

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Women’s shelters have too little money, they added. There are too few counselling services and the political measures are also inadequate. Women need to be heard, protected and taken seriously. Gender-based violence is an emergency for society as a whole.

Over the next few years, the federal government wants to take action against gender-based violence and focus on combating the causes, further training and protection against sexualised violence. “Substantial progress is to be made by 2026”, Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said in November.

At that time, it was also announced that a free, centralised emergency number for victims of violence that is available around the clock is expected to go into operation from November 2025.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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