Switzerland: Freedom of Creed and Conscience, Immigration, and Public Schools in the Postsecular State – Compulsory Coeducational Swimming Instruction Revisited

Abstract

Given its constitutional framework and political culture, Switzerland offers an example for the gradual inclusion of minorities resulting in a distinctive model of power sharing in a multiethnic society. However, global migration with its “new minorities” entails a fundamentally different challenge. Public primary schools, which are attended by virtually all children residing in Switzerland, thus face the difficult task of providing both for equal opportunities for all children and for social cohesion via a clearly defined educational agenda. This must be achieved at the same time the state respects the distinctive cultural and religious background of each student. The question of whether Muslim students should be obliged to attend compulsory swimming lessons in public primary schools has been widely discussed in both the legal and political arena after a decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in 1993 found such an obligation to be unconstitutional. With a case decided on October 24, 2008, the Court was given the opportunity to reconsider the issue. This paper critically assesses this recent decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in its social, political, and dogmatic context.

Keywords: constitutional law, multicultural societies, public education, compulsory schooling, integration, Islam, Muslims, headscarf, direct democracy, constitutional courts, Switzerland

JEL Classification: I28, K19, H4, J78