The inclusiveness of political rights has limits. A wacky attempt to have the voting last September invalidated on biodiversity forced the Federal Court to recall it recently: children and wild bees have the right to go to the polls in Switzerland. And the approach was not a joke.
Let’s get back. Frustrated with not having been able to take part in the election which, according to her, was directly concerned, an 11 -year -old Zurich girl had seized justice in the name of the child’s rights convention. The highest courtyard in the country has described the complaint as “obviously unfounded” and dismissed it without any other explanation. Visibly annoyed, the court even warned that it could automatically dismiss future similar approaches. As a reminder, the Constitution provides that we acquire its political rights in federal matters from 18 years old.
But ecological activists have had even more cheek. In another procedure, still in Zurich, defenders of wild bees challenged the fact that insects had not been invited to express themselves in their own name, while the vote focused on their possible extinction. There too, the Federal Court recalled that animals are not laws of law and therefore do not benefit from political rights.
The authors of the appeals will have to pay 1000 francs in legal costs, and the State will not cover their lawyers.
