Swiss campaigners gather enough signatures to submit ‘responsible business’ initiative

The coalition of environmental and human rights NGOs behind the initiative launched the signature collection just two weeks ago. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss people are set to vote again on the corporate responsibility of multinationals. After a first defeat at the ballot box in November 2020, the initiative committee collected 183,661 signatures in 14 days for their new 'responsible business' initiative.

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When the campaign was launched on January 7, the committee had set itself the goal of collecting the 100,000 signatures needed to force a national vote in just one month. In a press release issued on Tuesday, the committee spoke of a “record-breaking collection” that demonstrated the breadth of support among the population for this cause.

The new initiative calls for binding rules to oblige Swiss multinationals to respect human rights and environmental standards in their business activities, and to reduce their climate-damaging emissions.

+ Responsible business initiative rejected at the ballot box

These obligations are closely based on international standards in this field and on the rules adopted by the European Union. During the 2020 voting campaign, opponents of the initiative had argued that Switzerland should not go it alone, but rather act in coordination with the EU.

Translated from French with DeepL/gw

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