Geneva to anchor the right to food in constitution

Fresh, healthy, and constitutionally enshrined. © Keystone / Urs Flueeler

Geneva has become the first Swiss canton to anchor the right to food in its constitution following a popular vote on Sunday.

Almost 67% of voters accepted the proposal for a constitutionally guaranteed right to sufficient and quality food.

The initiative, under the slogan “Never again!”, was launched by left-wing and centrist groups and was largely spurred by images of queues of people lining up to receive food handouts in Geneva during the first wave of coronavirus in spring 2020.

The photos were picked up around the world as a striking reminder that even in wealthy Switzerland, poverty and precarity were still very present issues.

The groups behind the initiative said that an existing constitutional right to a “sufficient quality of life” needed more clarity.

They now want to create a participatory body which would define the contours of a law to implement the constitutional clause. This body would bring together public authorities, farmers, craftspeople, distributers, caterers and consumers.

Right-wing opponents of the vote on Sunday said existing dispositions were adequate and that the new clause will merely overload the constitution without bringing concrete change.