Implementing and advancing human rights at the local level 

For human rights to be effective, they must be implemented at the local level. Federalism creates the institutional framework for this by devolving extensive powers in human-rights-related areas to the cantons and municipalities.  

In addition, federalism allows the cantons and municipalities to further develop human rights standards and to adapt them to new challenges such as climate change, digitisation or policies on older people. Intermediate structures such as intercantonal conferences also play a key role in the federal human rights architecture, as they can support harmonisation processes for the implementation and further development of human rights. 

Transposition and monitoring 

Universal human rights standards have to be “transposed” into local contexts. This process of transposing, adapting and embedding is undertaken by a range of actors including parliaments, local administrations and civil society organisations in the 26 cantons and over 2,000 municipalities of Switzerland.  

New laws, regulations, directives and guidelines are adopted in the area of human rights virtually every day. An example of this could be a set of school regulations adopted by a municipality, stipulating how children with physical disabilities can take part in class camps. Another example might be guidelines for police officers when working with survivors of domestic violence.  

The federal government has to oversee the implementation of human rights throughout Switzerland. This oversight largely involves issuing preventive directives, reports and guidelines.  

Federalism – challenges and opportunities 

Although the cantons have considerable scope for action, there is a lack of binding guidelines on harmonisation and central coordination. Differences in levels of political will, resources and administrative capacity lead to disparities in human rights protection between the cantons. UN treaty bodies have repeatedly highlighted that Swiss federalism can impede the uniform implementation of human rights obligations. They call for better coordination and monitoring. 

A topic for the SHRI 

The positive and negative effects of federalism in relation to human rights protection in Switzerland provide the SHRI with a key starting point for work on this topic. The Institution conducts research on the effectiveness of the human rights protection system, as well as exploring questions around responsibility, coordination and implementation practices.  

The Federalism and Human Rights priority topic looks at how processes of transposition from international law to cantonal practice are organised, what institutional coordination and harmonisation mechanisms exist and how federal structures can contribute to strengthening human rights protection.