Swiss Review 6/2019

13 Swiss Review / November 2019 / No.6 Lockedup in Switzerland for being poor and sociallyundesirable Until 1981, the authorities institutionalised tens of thousands of men and women throughout Switzerland without a trial. An Expert Commission has now appraised these “administrative detentions”. The findings run contrary to the country’s self-image. “Robbed of all privacy” – internees at Bellechasse detention centre in Fribourg Photo: Fribourg cantonal archives SUSANNE WENGER “Administrative justice is one of the most appalling things you can im- agine.” That was the opinion of an ob- server in 1939, who was widely quoted by the Independent Expert Commission (IEC) eighty years later: Bernese writer and reformer, Carl Albert Loosli. While criminals had a right to a trial, the reality was very different for people who were in- terred by the welfare authorities and other administrative bodies, he com- plained. Swiss institutions contained “state slaves abandoned to the whims of the authorities”. And the most as- tounding aspect: “Nobody cared.” Loosli, the illegitimate son of a farmer’s daughter, was admitted to a juvenile correction facility as a young man. However, critical voices such as his clashed with the system for a long time. It was not until 1981 that the can- tons repealed their administrative de- tention laws and the federal govern- ment revised the Civil Code. In the meantime, the social welfare system had professionalised, and society had become more liberal after 1968. How- ever, the decisive factor was interna- tional pressure. Switzerland’s practice of depriving younger and older adults of their liberty at a stroke of the pen was incompatiblewith the previously ratified European Convention on Hu- man Rights. A “house of the other Switzerland” Innocent victims who had spent time in jail were not rehabilitated. They also initially kept silent out of shame. “We dealt with the stigma of having spent time in a house of correction, but we were never criminals,” says Ursula Biondi. As a young woman the now 69-year-old was “administra- tively detained” in Hindelbank prison for re-education, as it was known in bureaucratic terms (see page 14). After the turn of the century, some courageous individuals, includ- ing Biondi, began to tell their stories. The media showed interest, and the topic found its way onto the political agenda. Between 2011 and 2016, there Society