Gleichstellung und politische Rechte: auf dem Weg zu einer integrativen Demokratie

The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the introduction of women's suffrage at the Swiss federal level. The anniversary offers an opportunity to reflect on the topic of equality and political rights. The main part of this article focuses on the legal language, which played a decisive role in the history of the struggle for women's suffrage in Switzerland. In addition, the article deals with the voting rights of people with disabilities, young people, foreign nationals living in Switzerland and Swiss nationals living abroad. Today, prohibitions of discrimination under international law, which apply to political rights and which bind Switzerland, exist for gender and disability only. In both of these areas, the obligation s of state go beyond the mere granting of the right to vote and also include actual political participation. For the other groups, the discussion on introducing or extending the right to voite is mostly based on arguments related to democracy. Overall, Switzerland as catching up to do in various areas.