The conviction of five climate activists for blocking a street in Lausanne in 2019 is not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.
This content was published on February 8, 2024 – 14:04
Keystone-SDA
This decision does not violate the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, according to the Federal Court.
Five activists had participated in December 2019 – with nearly a hundred people – in the blocking of Rue Centrale, an important artery in the city centre, which had lasted more than six hours, from 10 am until around 4 pm.
Traffic, including buses and emergency vehicles, had to be diverted, causing serious disruption.
The Court of first instance sentenced the five activists to a suspended fine of 20 days, as well as a fine of CHF200.
The Cantonal Court then rejected their appeal, leading the interested parties to appeal to the High Court. They argued in particular that their conviction violated their right to freedom of assembly, as guaranteed by Article 11 of the ECHR.
How we work
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them hereExternal link.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look hereExternal link, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.chExternal link.
End of insertion
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative