The judges imposed on Switzerland the payment of 3 000 euros to an association who complained of having had to give up organizing a demonstration on May 1, 2020, due to health restrictions linked to the pandemic.
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It had been seized in 2020 by a Swiss association. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Switzerland on Tuesday March 15 for “violation of the freedom of assembly” in the face of the measures, deemed disproportionate, to ban public demonstrations adopted in 2020 in the face of the coronavirus epidemic. Covid-19. By a majority of 4 votes to 3, the European judges condemned the Swiss Confederation to pay 3,000 euros to the Geneva Community for Trade Union Action (CGAS). That association complained of having had to give up organizing a demonstration on May 1, 2020.
However, the institution recalls from the outset in its judgment that the “threat to public health” from coronavirus “was very serious”and required States to “react quickly”. But she points out that a “general prohibition of a certain behavior” is a “radical measure which requires a solid justification and a particularly serious control by the courts”.
The ECHR considers that this control “was not carried out by the domestic courts”even though, in the context of“emergency” in which the order was made, this control was “all the more compelling”. The Court also affirms that participation in a peaceful demonstration “should not, in principle, be subject to the threat of criminal sanction”and deplores the “severity of the penalties provided” by order.