The results of a survey published on 31 October 2024, show widespread discrimination and abuse in Switzerland’s military.
The survey was aimed at gauging the level of discrimination and abuse within the Swiss military and focused in particular on discrimination and abuse against women. Unlike men, women in Switzerland are not forced to do military service, however some volunteer. The survey was given to all 2,085 female military personnel and to the same number of male recruits. 1,126 people completed the survey.
Discrimination and sexualised verbal, nonverbal and physical violence based on gender and/or sexual orientation are prevalent in the Swiss Armed Forces, according to the results. These behaviours range from comments and gestures that are perceived as hurtful by the recipient, to serious physical violence. Such incidents are not anomalies, but rather form part of a pattern of discrimination and violence woven into the organisational culture of the Swiss Armed Forces, reported study authors.
Around half of survey participants (49.6%) claimed that they had or may have had experiences of discrimination in the Swiss Armed Forces (yes: 35.8%; not sure: 13.8%), while 40.1% reported the same for sexualised violence (yes: 30.2%; not sure: 9.9%). Women are affected significantly more often than men. Non-heterosexual cis men are affected particularly often by sexualised verbal violence, generally the most widespread form of sexualised violence, followed by nonverbal and physical violence.
Heterosexual men are also affected. A young male recruit recently told Le News that he had been subjected to racism and that his troop had been forced to survive on levels of sleep consistent with those defined as torture. Officers were also seen stealing. Standard procedures for reporting rule breaking and abuse were largely unavailable, leaving the recruits vulnerable to mistreatment. Within weeks around 30% of the troop had left with no acknowledgement from the military that anything might be amiss.
When discussing issues of abuse, the simplistic idea that soldiers must be toughened up in order to become effective is often invoked. The abused recruit is then required to distinguish their abuse from toughening up, something that can be difficult to achieve. For example, keeping soldiers on their feet for 18 hours and allowing them 6 hours sleep for a few days during battle training is probably a justified part of training. However, consistently and systematically keeping them up for 20 hours a day and threatening less than four hours sleep is almost certainly harmful and abusive. The problem is that it is easy to claim this falls under the definition of what is needed to toughen soldiers for battle.
Speaking to SRF, army chief Thomas Süssli said he did not expect the problem would have been this widespread. Mahidé Aslan, who heads the Department for Women and Diversity in the Swiss Army, was also surprised. Aslan told SRF she was was surprised that there are so many incidents affecting all genders and all levels of the hierarchy. Aslan was also surprised that the abuse occurred mainly in the lower ranks with soldiers the most frequent victims. Aslan’s surprise is surprising. Those at the bottom have the least power. And if you are at the bottom of an organisation and subject to abuse from those above you, trusting that same organisation to come to your rescue can be risky. So it is unsurprising that the anonymous reports of abuse gathered in this survey exceed the number reported via regular channels.
Data for the survey was collected between January and March 2023. 32% of respondents were male and 68 % were female. German speakers comprised 68% of participants, 26% were French-speaking and 6% were Italian-speaking.
More on this:
Swiss Armed Forces report (in English)
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