Not enough Swiss volunteer for civilian protection work

Civil protection duties are typically performed by those who are unfit for military service, but fit enough to carry out civil protection duties. Volunteers also take part. Keystone/Martial Trezzini

A pilot project has found that not enough people are volunteering for civilian protection work in Switzerland. The authorities say legal changes are therefore needed.

Under a pilot project carried out in southeastern Switzerland, civilian volunteers were integrated into the Graubünden Civil Protection Service’s rapid health section between 2022 and 2025.

The aim was to be able to deploy the volunteers in the event of a natural disaster or a pandemic, said the Federal Office for Civilian Service (ZIVI) and the Graubünden Office for Military and Civil Defence (AMZ) in a press release last week.

However, an evaluation of the project showed that it is not possible to recruit enough civilians on a voluntary basis. “For civilians, the freedom to organise their own assignments generally outweighed the usefulness of civil protection missions,” the authorities said.

It would therefore be necessary to make the commitments of civilians to civil protection mandatory, as provided for in the upcoming revision of the law, they stated.

Discussion in parliament

To try to ensure greater commitment, a revision of the law is planned; the House of Representatives is expected to discuss the issue this week.

The bill will look at whether people required to perform community service will in future have to do part of their service with the Civil Protection Service if it is understaffed. The Senate approved the controversial bill in the autumn.

It will also be necessary to standardise processes such as the call-up system, allocation of service days, reimbursements, and equipment, the federal authorities said.

The report nonetheless praised cooperation between civil protection and civilian service organisations which worked “very well” during the pilot project. The participants particularly appreciated the joint preparation for emergency operations.

Translated from German using DeepL/amva/sb