La constitutionnalisation du principe d'égalité hommes/femmes en Suisse et le processus de concrétisation

Abstract

The voting rights of the women in the federal votings has been tardily adopted — 1977 —. Despite the resistance to change of some cantons, the votation of June 1981 registers the equal rights of men and women in the Constitution. This rule prescribes the suppression of many discriminations. The second component of these new fundamental rights puts the legislator in charge of making use of the equality, especially in the domains offamily, instrution and work. But the third component consists in a right to an equal pay for an equal work which is directly applicable. In concrete terms, the process of concretisation of the components of this fundamental right turned out to be slower and more complex thon what was expected. Several factors should be mentionned. In particular the prohibition of discriminations base on sex could notfind an optimal realization by the federal court, which has to apply the federal laws in force because of the article 113 of the Constitution. Moreover the adoption of new legislative standards is slowed down by specifie practices of the swiss democracy. However the rules of the European Community legislation are sujficiently important references to be taken in account. The federal law adopted in 1995 tries to bring a first answer in its entirely by materializing several components of this fundamental right. But there are still choices to make, in particular the opportuneness of taking positive discrimination measures towards women.