The right to respect for digital integrity is an emerging right to protect people's digital lives.
Every person (natural or legal) has the right to respect for their physical and moral integrity. The digital revolution has given rise to the notion of digital life. "If human beings have a digital existence, there is reason to consider that their integrity also extends to this dimension"[ citation needed ].
Contained in the right to life, the right to digital integrity is proposed as a justification for all digital rights. The inclusion of the right to digital integrity in fundamental rights makes it possible to claim the right to informational self-determination at constitutional level.
A conference was organised in 2023 [1] in the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly on the theme of artificial intelligence and participatory democracy, which also presented the evolution of the right to digital integrity.
In a speech on 15 June 2017, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, referred to the notion of digital integrity in the security context of the digital society: "Cybercrime, cyberattacks and cyber-criminality are the main threats to digital integrity, and France must aim for excellence in this area by protecting personal data and digital integrity". [2]
On 7 February 2018, a member of the French parliament proposed an amendment to give data a patrimonial and moral value, so that each person each person has authority over his or her digital integrity [3] but which is not accepted.
On 29 May 2021, the Pirate Party Germany included the right to digital integrity in its political programme during the German federal elections. The Pirate Party proposes amending Article 2(2) of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. [4] The proposed text is "Everyone has the right to life and to physical and digital integrity. Personal freedom is inviolable. These rights may only be infringed by law".
The concept of digital integrity has been defended by the Swiss Pirate Party, which regularly denounces attacks on it. The Social Democratic Party has included the notion of digital integrity in its Internet Policy: "The party is committed to the recognition and protection of citizens' digital integrity. Guaranteeing digital integrity is the main lever for the right to informational self-determination". [5]
A draft popular initiative aims to add the right to digital integrity to Article 10 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. [6] The draft popular initiative "For Digital Sovereignty" aims to amend the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation to integrity and digital sovereignty.[ full citation needed ]
A parliamentary initiative to introduce the right to digital integrity into the Federal Constitution was submitted on 29 September 2022 by Samuel Bendahan. [7] In December 2023, the National Council rejected the proposal by 118 votes to 65. The majority which had examined the text beforehand, considered that this addition would have an essentially symbolic impact [8] .
In September 2020, the Geneva section of the Liberals launched a cantonal popular initiative in the canton of Geneva to include a paragraph in the Geneva constitution stipulating that "everyone has the right to safeguard their digital integrity". [9] In November 2020, the initiative was abandoned in favour of a constitutional law. The draft constitutional law was tabled on 28 April 2021 and provides for the addition of a new paragraph identical to the draft initiative. On 22 September 2022, the Geneva Grand Council passed the constitutional law. Finally a popular vote was accepted by more than 94% of the population on 18 June 2023 to add this new right to the constitution of the canton. [10] [11]
The new constitutional article, art. 21A, also includes additional guarantees for the processing of personal data within the responsibility of the canton and includes the canton's commitment to address the digital divide through promoting digital inclusion, raising public digital awareness, as well as an engagement in the development and implementation of Swiss digital sovereignty. [12]
A parliamentary initiative entitled "Guaranteeing digital integrity for everyone" was submitted on 28 September 2022 by Quentin Haas, a member of the Jura parliament. [13] This was accepted on 15 February 2023.
A draft decree amending the Constitution of the Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel was submitted to the Grand Council of Neuchâtel in January 2023. The change should be submitted to a popular vote. [14]
Commission of the Constituent Assembly on the fundamental rights of the Canton of Valais is proposing the introduction of a paragraph in the future Constitution stating that "Every human being has the right to digital integrity". [15] [16]
An initiative tabled in January 2023 by around forty members of parliament proposes adding Article 15a Protection of digital integrity in the Vaud constitution. [17]
A petition submitted in June 2023 to the parliament by the local political party Pirat [18] proposes adding the right to digital integrity in a new Article 8 bis in the Zug constitution. [19]
In March 2024, the local political Pirate Party launched a signature campaign for a popular initiative to introduce digital integrity into its cantonal constitution [20] .
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts its largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the 26 cantons of the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five municipalities, and the seat of the government and parliament is in the City of Geneva.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Switzerland since 1 July 2022. Legislation to open marriage to same-sex couples passed the Swiss Parliament in December 2020. The law was challenged in a referendum on 26 September 2021 by opponents of same-sex marriage and was approved with the support of 64% of voters and a majority in all 26 cantons. The law went into force on 1 July 2022. A provision of the law permitting same-sex marriages performed abroad to be recognised in Switzerland took effect on 1 January 2022. Switzerland was the seventeenth country in Europe and the 30th in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Voting in Switzerland is the process by which Swiss citizens make decisions about governance and elect officials. The history of voting rights in Switzerland mirrors the complexity of the nation itself. The polling stations are opened on Saturdays and Sunday mornings but most people vote by post in advance. At noon on Sunday, voting ends and the results are usually known during the afternoon.
Geneva railway station, also known as Geneva Cornavin railway station, is Geneva's main train station, located in the centre of the city. The immediate area surrounding it is known as Cornavin; both names can be used interchangeably.
Human rights are largely respected in Switzerland, one of Europe's oldest democracies. Switzerland is often at or near the top in international rankings of civil liberties and political rights observance. Switzerland places human rights at the core of the nation's value system, as represented in its Federal Constitution. As described in its FDFA's Foreign Policy Strategy 2016-2019, the promotion of peace, mutual respect, equality and non-discrimination are central to the country's foreign relations.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Switzerland are progressive by world standards. Social attitudes and the legal situation have liberalised at an increasing pace since the 1940s, in parallel to the situation in Europe and the Western world more generally. Legislation providing for same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and IVF access was accepted by 64% of voters in a referendum on 26 September 2021, and entered into force on 1 July 2022.
Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE) is a limited company established under Swiss public law, resulting from the merger of the Caisse d'Épargne de la République et Canton de Genève and the Banque Hypothécaire du Canton de Genève. It is one of the 24 cantonal banks.
The federal popular initiative "against the construction of minarets" was a successful popular initiative in Switzerland to prevent the construction of minarets on mosques. In a November 2009 referendum, a constitutional amendment banning the construction of new minarets was approved by 57.5% of the participating voters. Only three of the twenty Swiss cantons and one half canton, mostly in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, opposed the initiative.
The Geneva Citizens' Movement, abbreviated to MCG, is a right-wing populist political party in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. On its own initiative, it started, and is a part of, the wider Romandy Citizens' Movement, abbreviated to MCR.
Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was not until a 1990 decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland that women gained full voting rights in the final Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden.
The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) is one of the most important international events dedicated to cinema and human rights, located in the heart of Geneva, "international capital of human rights". The inspiration and impetus behind the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights came from human rights defenders active in NGO's, filmmakers, media representatives and the University of Geneva. The FIFDH coincides with the UN Human Rights Council's main session. This simultaneous event makes the Festival a Free Platform for discussion and debates on a wide variety of topics concerning human rights. It was created by Léo Kaneman and co-founded by Yäel Reinharz Hazan, Pierre Hazan and Isabelle Gattiker in November 2002. Its first edition took place in March 2003.
Non-citizen suffrage in Switzerland is an ongoing political issue in the country. Switzerland is a federal nation. As such, the cantons have extensive powers to enact their own legislation. For this reason, the rules regarding the rights of non-citizen residents to vote differ considerably throughout Switzerland.
Sentience Politics is a Swiss anti-speciesist political organization with the goal of reducing the suffering of non-human animals. Founded in 2013, their activities include political campaigns, such as ballot initiatives for sustainable food, fundamental rights for primates or a ban on factory farming.
Emma Kammacher was a Swiss human rights lawyer, activist and politician. She was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland and served as a member of the Grand Council of Geneva. In 1965 she became the first woman to serve as president of a Swiss cantonal council.
Jean-Claude Vignoli is an activist, journalist and writer, born in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the co-founder of UPR Info, a Geneva-based human rights NGO. UPR Info is the first NGO working on the Universal Periodic Review process. He is a journalist and writer, with his first book titled "Pour une poignée d'ivoire" that recounts his experience as traffickers hunter in Ivory Coast.
Jacqueline Berenstein-Wavre was a Swiss politician who spent her political career in Geneva. She fought for women's rights in the workplace.
The Political Rights Act (PRA) (German: Bundesgesetz über die politischen Rechte, BPR, French: Loi fédérale sur les droits politiques, LDP, Italian: Legge federale sui diritti politici, LDP), is a Swiss federal law that regulates the exercise of political rights (votations and elections) in Switzerland. The law was adopted on 17 December 1976 by the Federal Assembly and came into force on 1 July 1978.
Schubert practice, also known as the Schubert jurisprudence, is a partially abandoned legal doctrine in Swiss law manifested in a series of decisions of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, according to which provisions of domestic law have practical primacy over otherwise binding, but conflicting, provisions of international law as long as the former are lex posterior – even if the latter are lex specialis – based on a generalized hypothesis that a posterior act of the legislator whereby an existing act of international law has been contradicted was, in reality, a conscious, albeit implicit, act of abrogation. As an immediate consequence, when the doctrine is applied, internatonal law is violated.
Switzerland has tobacco legislation defined at federal and cantonal level. It covers protection of the population against passive smoking, restrictions on tobacco advertising, warnings on packaging and taxes.