Amendment to the Civilian Service Act
On 14 June 2026, the Swiss people will vote on the Amendment to the Civilian Service Act.
The legislative amendment in brief
Anyone who cannot reconcile military service with their conscience has the option of performing civilian service. To do so they must submit an application. Until 2009, an admissions committee assessed whether the conflict of conscience was credible. Since then, applicants have demonstrated their conflict of conscience by agreeing to perform 1.5 times as many days of civilian service as they would have had left to complete in the military.
The Federal Council and Parliament want to ensure that civilian service remains an exception. The bill aims to reduce the number of people opting for civilian service. It targets primarily members of the Armed Forces who only transfer to civilian service after having already completed a significant portion of their military service. This is because these individuals now only have to complete relatively few additional days of service. Under the new rules, all those opting for civilian service must complete at least 150 days of service. Additional measures include stricter guidelines for planning civilian service assignments. This is intended to prevent members of the civilian service from gaining an advantage over those doing military service. A referendum has been launched against the bill. Therefore, it will be put to a vote.
Explanations of the Federal Council
On the German, French, Italian and Romansh pages, the official explanations of the Federal Council are available in PDF format.
