![European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, photographed by Christian Beutler, 2018.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gerichtshof-titelbild-1-300x225.jpg)
How Swiss law is adopting European fundamental rights
The Swiss Federal Constitution is caught in a push-and-pull between direct democracy, on the one hand, and European and international law, on the other. Certain European fundamental rights standards are being adopted nonetheless. The Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights have had a marked effect on the current version of the Constitution. Decisions in Strasbourg continue to develop and enhance human rights standards that apply not just in the EU, but in Switzerland, too.
Constitutional balancing act
European fundamental rights standard
![The Federal Council was planning to sign the European Convention on Human Rights with the caveat that votes for women would be exempted. Protests from numerous women's groups accelerated a second referendum proposal, however. In the canton of Zurich, the initiative committee relied on male advocates to front their campaign, such as former city mayor Emil Landolt. The campaign was led by legendary advertising executive Doris Gisler Truog (standing). Votes for women campaign in Zurich, November 1970, photographed by Hans Gerber.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/frauenstimmrechtskampagne-300x199.jpg)
![Ten western European states founded the Council of Europe in the wake of the Second World War. The Council went on to draft the ECHR, which was signed by the now-14 member states of the Council of Europe in Rome in November 1950. Switzerland ratified the ECHR in 1974.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/menschenrechte-300x200.jpg)
No word on the EU
![In the early 1990s it emerged that the European Economic Community (EEC) planned to form an even closer bloc. This soon gave rise to nationalistic resistance in German-speaking Switzerland. Helvetia defends herself forcefully against membership of the EEC, which was to become the EU. ‘Le Divorce’, by Raymond Burki, 1990.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/helvetia-1-300x198.jpg)
The Confederation and the Cantons shall respect international law.