Gruppe für eine Schweiz ohne Armee

Solidarity Creates Security

  

Text of GSoA Initiative for a Civil Peace Service (General Assembly on March 23, 1997)

"Solidarity Creates Security"

Art. 8bis (new)

  1. Switzerland creates a Civil Peace Service ZFD as an instrument of an active peace policy.
  2. The ZFD contributes in the country and abroad to diminish existing relations of violence and to prevent new ones. Therefore it especially develops means for non-violent settlement of conflicts, prevention of violence, of social reconstruction, and for protection of the basis of life.
  3. The participation in the ZFD is a voluntary work. Volunteers are recompensed for their work as well as for their preparation/education. The equal participation of men and women in the ZFD has to be aspired.
  4. ZFD, in co-operation with state institutions, non-governmental organisations and private bodies, offers a basic education in theory and practice of non-violent conflict resolution. This education prepares for engagements in the ZFD and is accessible to everybody living in Switzerland free of charge.
  5. ZFD provides a specific education and formation for people going for engagements. It respects the personal qualifications of the participants and the needs for action.
  6. ZFD organises unarmed, non-violent peace missions on request of non-governmental organisation, state institutions or international organisations. It thereby closely co-operates with the local organisations.
  7. ZFD is funded with public funds in the state budget. It engages non-governmental organisations for planning and handling of engagements in the field.
  8. An independent commission composed of half men and half women members decides on the curriculum for the basic education, the specific education for single engagements, as well as on the projects and work in the field. Peace and women organisations, as well as organisations working on issues of environment, migration and development, take part in this commission.

II The transitory dispositions of the Constitution are modified as follows:

Art. 12.

1. Engagements and preparation for ZFD according to article 8bis are treated as unwilling absence from work. All legal protections correspond to the existing Civil Service.

  • ZFD may not endanger any existing working places of existing conditions for work.
  • As long as there is a Civil Service in Switzerland, all commitments for the Civil Peace Service are counted as days of service.
  • If there is no law to Art. 8bis within five years after the acceptance of this amendment, the government regulates the ZFD by decree till the law is valid.
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