For Climate & Justice

Fossil banks too big to stay

In the early hours of 8 July 2019, hundreds of people blocked the entrances to Credit Suisse’s headquarters on Zurich’s Paradeplatz and to UBS’s headquarters in Basel’s Aeschenvorstadt district. The Collective Climate Justice chose these locations because the two major banks are, and have been, key players in the Swiss financial centre and are therefore largely responsible for global warming. Through its global investments in fossil fuels, the Swiss financial centre causes twenty times Switzerland’s domestic emissions. Through this protest action, countless people demanded then – just as they do today – that the money be cut off from those investing in the climate catastrophe! But instead of a swift phase-out of fossil fuels, the major banks and the state responded with unprecedented repression. During the clearance operation, the police detained around 100 activists for up to 48 hours, took DNA samples from them and charged them with breach of the peace, trespass and coercion.

Next station Strassburg: Application to the ECHR

Whilst the accused activists were acquitted at first instance in Basel, both the District Court and the High Court in Zurich upheld the convictions for trespass and coercion. This was done without being able to name any victims of coercion and without the activists ever having been stopped outside publicly accessible premises.

Earlier this summer, the Federal Supreme Court published its ruling on the protest. It sent back the conviction for trespass, but upheld the conviction for coercion.

We protested where the responsibility lies. The fact that we continue to be convicted despite being acquitted of trespass shows just how narrow the scope for effective protest has become in Switzerland. We need a legal system that protects those who stand up for the foundations of our livelihoods – and holds to account those who destroy them for the sake of profit.

For it is precisely in times of multiple crises that the right to protest is particularly important for resilient societies. Switzerland continues to allow financial institutions to invest in fossil fuels, whilst at the same time being repeatedly criticised by the UN Special Rapporteur for its treatment of climate activists. This cannot be allowed to continue! That is why we will go ahead with the #BankTrials and lodge a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Protect the Protest: Together for Climate & Justice

As well as a great deal of perseverance and time, such legal proceedings also require a fair amount of financial support. Your support helps to:

• Cover legal fees, so that our activists are well defended, the complaint is worded convincingly, and our arguments are clear to the judges.

• To fund an expert opinion from a renowned professor of criminal law to highlight the importance of our case.

• To organise a dance performance outside the European Court of Human Rights to help the climate justice movement truly grasp the harsh reality of a court case.