Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 - Switzerland

Population: 7.3 million (1.5 million under 18)
Government Armed Forces: 4,200
Compulsary Recruitment Age: 19
Voluntary Recruitment Age: 18
Voting Age: 18
Optional Protocol: ratified 26 June 2002
Other Treaties: GC AP I, GC AP II, CRC, ILO 138, ILO 182, ICC

Both compulsory and voluntary enlistment in the Swiss armed forces before the age of 18 was explicitly prohibited.

Government:

National recruitment legislation and practice

Article 59 of the 1999 constitution provides the basis for conscription; basic military training was compulsory for all men aged 19 to 26. As the army was a predominantly militia-style force, standing forces were considerably smaller than the reserve forces. While basic military training normally lasted 21 weeks, the requirements of reserve duty included participation in six or seven 17-day training periods up to the age of 34 for all men (continuing up to the age of 50 for officers).¹ Both compulsory and voluntary enlistment in the Swiss armed forces before the age of 18 was explicitly prohibited. The 1995 Federal Act concerning the Army and Military Administration (LAAM) stipulated that enlistment (including registration and attendance of recruitment sessions) should take place at the beginning of the year during which those eligible for compulsory service turned 19, extending to the end of the year that those eligible for compulsory service turned 25. It stipulated that the actual performance of military service should begin at the start of the year when the conscript became 20, with recruitment training normally beginning at this time. The LAAM also provided for voluntary military service for all Swiss women. A range of provisions in the Swiss Criminal Code prohibited and criminalized the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 by armed groups.²

According to the government, all armed forces personnel received instruction in international humanitarian law and children's rights during their training periods. Swiss civilian personnel participating in international peace-building missions were given training in the particular needs of children in armed conflicts as a core part of their preparation by the Department of Foreign Affairs.³

Military training and military schools

According to the 2002 Ordinance on the Recruitment of Conscripts (OREC), all Swiss citizens received information at the age of 16 from their cantonal authority regarding the possibilities for military or civilian service, for service in civil protection or in the Red Cross. The OREC also required all those eligible for conscription in the year they turned 19 to attend recruitment sessions. Eighteen-year-olds wishing to do their recruitment training early could also attend.⁴ There were no schools operated or controlled by the armed forces.

Developments:

In examining Switzerland's Initial Report on implementation of the Optional Protocol in January 2006, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child took particular note that Switzerland was "a country of destination of asylum-seeking and migrant children coming from war-torn countries". The Committee expressed concern over the apparent lack of relevant training regarding the needs of war-affected children for those interviewing asylum seekers, and regretted the absence of any data on child asylum seekers who had been involved in armed conflict in their countries of origin. The Committee called on the Swiss authorities to provide asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children who might have been involved in armed conflict with "immediate, culturally sensitive multidisciplinary assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and for their social reintegration".⁵

At a February 2007 ministerial meeting in Paris, Switzerland and 58 other states endorsed the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups and the Paris Principles and guidelines on children associated with armed forces or armed groups. The documents reaffirmed international standards and operational principles for protecting and assisting child soldiers and followed a wide-ranging global consultation jointly sponsored by the French government and UNICEF.

1 Quaker Council for European Affairs, The Right to Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe: A Review of the Current Situation, April 2005.

2 Initial report of Switzerland to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the implementation of the Optional Protocol, UN Doc. CRC/C/OPAC/CHE/1, 14 July 2005.

3 Ibid.

4 2002 Ordinance on the Recruitment of Conscripts, www.admin.ch.

5 Committee on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of report submitted by Switzerland on implementation of the Optional Protocol, Concluding observations, UN Doc. CRC/C/OPAC/CHE/CO/1, 17 March 2006.