The ban on discrimination
The Swiss Federal Constitution also contains an explicit prohibition of discrimination - similar to that contained in international human rights treaties - only since January 1, 2000, when the completely revised version of the Constitution came into force. This prohibition applies when a person suffers unequal treatment on the basis of a personal characteristic that is so essential to him or her that he or she is not able to change it or cannot reasonably be expected to change it. The Federal Constitution lists in Art. 8 para. 2 Cst. biological criteria ("race", sex, age, physical, mental or psychological deficiency) as well as cultural or other criteria (origin, language, social situation, way of life, religious, philosophical or political convictions). This list is deliberately not exhaustive, as other groups of people are also recognized as being exposed to systematic exclusion and other exclusion mechanisms may arise. As a rule, constitutional protection against discrimination covers stigmatized social groups.
Equal treatment
It is basically assumed that any unequal treatment of an individual or a group of individuals based on a personal characteristic is prohibited. However, as long as there are "qualified" grounds, unequal treatment can be justified, even if there are discriminatory criteria. In such cases, doctrine and practice require a particularly thorough examination of the grounds for unequal treatment. In other words, unequal treatment is only permissible if the measure pursues a permissible objective and the discrimination is appropriate, necessary and acceptable for the achievement of this objective (see e.g. BGE 135 I 49).