Switzerland taken to human rights court for not providing vegan prison food

Yvonne O'Halloran

The world is plunging into despair with new reports by the UN stating we are dangerously close to climate collapse. In the last few years, the call to environmental activism has surged. After decades of environmental protests, petitions and letters to parliament being ignored, activists have ramped up their methods of disruption, refusing to allow ‘business as usual’ to proliferate. This means more and more activists are facing prison time.

Vegan activists are challenging Switzerland in the European court of human rights for failing to cater to vegan prisoners and psychiatric patients appropriately. If this case is won, being vegan will become a protected right, for which adequate food must be provided in all detention facilities.

Two individuals are the case examples. The first, a vegan activist who was arrested for breaking into slaughterhouses, butcher shops and restaurants, as well as committing criminal damage in 2018. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison. To retain his vegan diet, he had to make do with side salads, rice, and burger buns. He was also offered a B12 supplement from animal origins. He was eventually diagnosed with an iron deficiency and suffered from constipation and haemorrhoids. Symptoms that vegans know to be highly unnecessary, as the adequacy of a vegan diet has now been proven extensively.

The prison rejected his requests for a better diet.

A patient who had been admitted into psychiatric hospital then came forward, announcing that he had been denied a vegan diet during his admission.

In the next 3 to 4 months, Switzerland will decide whether vegan diets should be protected with the European Convention of Human Rights already stating, “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. Whilst being vegan for religious purposes could already easily be argued for, the extension to claiming dietary rights on ethical grounds would change vegan history, with the potential to have knock-on effects across Europe.

Article written by Aisling Geraghty- Australia

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