Federal Act
on Support for the Victims of Crime
(Victim Support Act, VSA)

¹ Any per­son whose phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity has been dir­ectly harmed by a crim­in­al of­fence (a vic­tim) is en­titled to sup­port pur­su­ant to this Act (vic­tim sup­port).

² The vic­tim's spouse, chil­dren, par­ents and oth­er per­sons who are sim­il­arly close to the vic­tim (re­l­at­ives) are also en­titled to vic­tim sup­port.

³ This right ap­plies ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the per­pet­rat­or:

a.

has been iden­ti­fied;

b.

ac­ted in culp­able man­ner;

c.

ac­ted wil­fully or neg­li­gently.

Vic­tim sup­port in­cludes:

a.

coun­selling and emer­gency as­sist­ance;

b.

longer-term as­sist­ance from the coun­selling centres;

c.

con­tri­bu­tions to the cost of longer-term as­sist­ance from third parties;

d.

dam­ages;

e.

sat­is­fac­tion;

f.

ex­emp­tion from pro­ced­ur­al costs;

g.³

…

¹ Vic­tim sup­port is provided if the of­fence was com­mit­ted in Switzer­land.

² If the of­fence was com­mit­ted abroad, the ser­vices of the coun­selling centres shall be provided sub­ject to the spe­cial con­di­tions spe­cified in this Act (Art. 17); no dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion shall be paid.

¹ Vic­tim sup­port be­ne­fits are only gran­ted defin­it­ively if the of­fend­er or an­oth­er per­son or in­sti­tu­tion that is li­able fails to make any pay­ment or suf­fi­cient pay­ment.

² Per­sons claim­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the cost of longer-term as­sist­ance from third parties, or claim­ing dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion must provide cred­ible evid­ence that the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 are met, un­less it is un­reas­on­able to ex­pect them to seek pay­ment from third parties in view of the par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances.

Coun­selling, emer­gency as­sist­ance and longer-term as­sist­ance from the coun­selling centres shall be provided free of charge to vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives.

¹ The en­ti­tle­ment to con­tri­bu­tions to the cost of longer-term as­sist­ance from third parties and to dam­ages ap­plies only if the al­low­able in­come of the vic­tim or their de­pend­ants does not ex­ceed four times the rel­ev­ant amount for gen­er­al liv­ing ex­penses in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 10 para­graph 1 let­ter a of the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 2006⁴ on Be­ne­fits Sup­ple­ment­ary to the Old-Age, Sur­viv­ors' and Dis­ab­il­ity In­sur­ance (SBA).⁵

² The al­low­able in­come of the claimant is cal­cu­lated in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 SBA, based on the per­son’s an­ti­cip­ated in­come fol­low­ing the of­fence.⁶

³ Sat­is­fac­tion is paid re­gard­less of the claimant’s in­come.

¹ If a can­ton has provided vic­tim sup­port un­der this Act, the vic­tim or the vic­tim's re­l­at­ives shall be held to have as­signed their rights to be­ne­fits of the same kind to which they are en­titled be­cause of the of­fence to the can­ton to the ex­tent of the sup­port provided by the can­ton.

² These rights shall take pre­ced­ence over the re­main­ing rights of the claimant and third-party rights of re­course.

³ The can­ton shall not as­sert its right against the per­pet­rat­or if this would jeop­ard­ise the le­git­im­ate in­terests of the vic­tim or his or her re­l­at­ives or the per­pet­rat­or’s re­hab­il­it­a­tion.

¹ The law en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies shall in­form the vic­tim about vic­tim sup­port and, sub­ject to cer­tain re­quire­ments, for­ward the vic­tim's name and ad­dress to a coun­selling centre. The re­lated ob­lig­a­tions are gov­erned by the rel­ev­ant rules of pro­ced­ure.

² A per­son res­id­ent in Switzer­land who has been the vic­tim of a crim­in­al of­fence abroad may con­tact a Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tion or the of­fice provid­ing Swiss con­su­lar pro­tec­tion. These of­fices shall provide the vic­tim with in­form­a­tion about vic­tim sup­port in Switzer­land. Sub­ject to the vic­tim’s con­sent, they shall no­ti­fy a coun­selling centre of the vic­tim’s name and ad­dress.

³ Para­graphs 1 and 2 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to re­l­at­ives of the vic­tim.

Em­ploy­ees of the can­ton­al of­fices or au­thor­it­ies that de­cide on fin­an­cial as­sist­ance, dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion are not sub­ject to a duty to re­port sus­pec­ted of­fences.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that pro­fes­sion­ally in­de­pend­ent pub­lic or private coun­selling centres are avail­able. The can­tons shall take ac­count of the spe­cial needs of dif­fer­ent cat­egor­ies of vic­tims.

² They may op­er­ate joint coun­selling centres.

¹ The coun­selling centres may in­spect the files of crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies and courts from pro­ceed­ings in which the vic­tim or their re­l­at­ives are in­volved, sub­ject to their con­sent.

² The right to in­spect files may only be denied to the coun­selling centres if this would also be per­mit­ted in re­la­tion to the vic­tim un­der ap­plic­able pro­ced­ur­al law.

¹Per­sons who work for a coun­selling centre must treat in­form­a­tion that comes to their at­ten­tion as con­fid­en­tial in deal­ings with the au­thor­it­ies and private in­di­vidu­als. This duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity con­tin­ues to ap­ply on ter­min­a­tion of their em­ploy­ment. The duty to testi­fy un­der the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code re­mains re­served⁹.¹⁰

² The duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity may be waived if the per­son re­ceiv­ing coun­selling agrees to this.

³ If the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of a minor or a per­son sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship is ser­i­ously at risk, the coun­selling centre may in­form the child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or file a com­plaint with the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­ity.¹¹

⁴ Any per­son who breaches the duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ The coun­selling centres shall provide coun­selling to vic­tims and their fam­il­ies and sup­port them in ex­er­cising their rights.

² If the coun­selling centres re­ceive a re­port in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 or 2, they shall con­tact the vic­tim or the vic­tim's re­l­at­ives.¹²

¹ The coun­selling centres shall provide vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives with im­me­di­ate as­sist­ance for the most ur­gent needs that arise as a res­ult of the of­fence (emer­gency as­sist­ance).

² They shall provide vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives with ad­di­tion­al as­sist­ance as ne­ces­sary un­til the health of the per­son con­cerned has sta­bil­ised and un­til the oth­er con­sequences of the of­fence have been re­solved or com­pensated for as far as pos­sible (longer-term as­sist­ance).

³ The coun­selling centres may ar­range for emer­gency and longer-term as­sist­ance to be provided by third parties.

¹ The ser­vices in­clude the ap­pro­pri­ate med­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al, so­cial, ma­ter­i­al and leg­al as­sist­ance in Switzer­land that has be­come ne­ces­sary as a res­ult of the of­fence. If re­quired, the coun­selling centres shall provide emer­gency ac­com­mod­a­tion for vic­tims or their re­l­at­ives.

² A per­son res­id­ent abroad who is the vic­tim of a crim­in­al of­fence in Switzer­land is also en­titled to con­tri­bu­tions to­wards the costs of treat­ment at their place of res­id­ence.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that the vic­tim and his or her re­l­at­ives can re­ceive emer­gency as­sist­ance with­in a reas­on­able peri­od of time.

² The ser­vices of the coun­selling centres may be claimed re­gard­less of when the of­fence was com­mit­ted.

³ Vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives may con­tact a coun­selling centre of their choice.

The costs of longer-term third-party as­sist­ance are covered as fol­lows:

a.

in full if, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graphs 1 and 2, the claimant's al­low­able in­come does not ex­ceed twice the rel­ev­ant amount for gen­er­al liv­ing ex­penses;

b.

pro­por­tion­ately if the claimant's al­low­able in­come is between twice and four times the rel­ev­ant amount for gen­er­al liv­ing ex­penses in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graphs 1 and 2.

¹ If an of­fence has been com­mit­ted abroad, the fol­low­ing per­sons are en­titled to as­sist­ance un­der this chapter:

a.

the vic­tim, if he or she was res­id­ent in Switzer­land at the time of the of­fence and at the time of ap­ply­ing for as­sist­ance;

b.

the vic­tim's re­l­at­ives, if both they and the vic­tim were res­id­ent in Switzer­land at the time of the of­fence and at the time of ap­ply­ing for as­sist­ance.

² As­sist­ance is only provided if the state in which the of­fence was com­mit­ted does not provide any be­ne­fits or the be­ne­fits provided are in­suf­fi­cient.

¹ A can­ton that provides ser­vices un­der this chapter in fa­vour of per­sons res­id­ent in an­oth­er can­ton shall re­ceive a com­pens­at­ory pay­ment from the lat­ter.

² If these com­pens­at­ory pay­ments are not made in terms of an in­ter­can­t­on­al ar­range­ment, the fol­low­ing prin­ciples ap­ply: the can­ton of res­id­ence pays flat-rate con­tri­bu­tions to the can­ton provid­ing the ser­vices. The basis for cal­cu­la­tion is the total ex­pendit­ure in­curred by the can­tons for ser­vices un­der this chapter di­vided by the num­ber of per­sons who have re­ceived these vic­tim sup­port ser­vices.

¹ Vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives are en­titled to dam­ages for the fin­an­cial loss suffered as a res­ult of the harm to or death of the vic­tim.

² Dam­ages shall be cal­cu­lated in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 45 (dam­ages for hom­icide) and 46 (dam­ages for per­son­al in­jury) of the Swiss Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹⁴, sub­ject to para­graphs 3 and 4.

³ Prop­erty dam­age and dam­age that may give rise to emer­gency as­sist­ance or longer-term as­sist­ance in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 are not taken in­to ac­count.

⁴ Losses re­lated to the in­ab­il­ity to per­form house­hold tasks or provide care for re­l­at­ives shall only be taken in­to ac­count if they res­ult in ad­di­tion­al costs or a re­duc­tion in earn­ing ca­pa­city.

¹ Ser­vices that the ap­plic­ant has re­ceived from third parties as dam­ages are off­set against the loss for the pur­pose of cal­cu­lat­ing the dam­ages.

² The dam­ages cov­er the loss:

a.

in its en­tirety, if, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graphs 1 and 2, the claimant's al­low­able in­come does not ex­ceed the rel­ev­ant amount for gen­er­al liv­ing ex­penses;

b.

pro­por­tion­ately, if, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graphs 1 and 2, the claimant's al­low­able in­come is between one and four times the rel­ev­ant amount for gen­er­al liv­ing ex­penses.¹⁵

³ The dam­ages shall not ex­ceed CHF 130,000; no dam­ages shall be paid if they would amount to less than CHF 500.¹⁶

⁴ The dam­ages may be paid in two or more in­stal­ments.

The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall make an ad­vance pay­ment if:

a.

the claimant re­quires im­me­di­ate fin­an­cial as­sist­ance; and

b.

the con­sequences of the of­fence can­not be de­term­ined with suf­fi­cient cer­tainty in the short term.

¹ Vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives are en­titled to sat­is­fac­tion if the sever­ity of the harm jus­ti­fies it; Art­icles 47 and 49 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹⁷ ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

² The right to sat­is­fac­tion is not trans­miss­ible un­der the law of suc­ces­sion.

¹ Sat­is­fac­tion is cal­cu­lated ac­cord­ing to the sever­ity of the harm.

² It amounts to a max­im­um of:

a.

76,000 francs for the vic­tim;

b.

38,000 francs for re­l­at­ives.¹⁸

³ Sat­is­fac­tion pay­ments by third parties shall be de­duc­ted.

Any per­son wish­ing to claim dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion or re­ceive an ad­vance on dam­ages must sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion to the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

¹ Vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives must sub­mit the ap­plic­a­tion for dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion with­in five years of the of­fence be­ing com­mit­ted or com­ing to their know­ledge, oth­er­wise their rights shall be for­feited.

² Vic­tims may sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion up to the age of 25:

a.

for of­fences un­der Art­icle 97 para­graph 2 of the Crim­in­al Code¹⁹ and Art­icle 55 para­graph 2 of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927²⁰;

b.

for the at­temp­ted murder of a child un­der the age of 16.

³ Vic­tims or their re­l­at­ives who have as­ser­ted civil claims in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings be­fore the ex­piry of the time lim­its un­der para­graph 1 or 2 may sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion with­in one year of the fi­nal de­cision on the civil claims or the dis­con­tinu­ation of the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings.

¹The can­ton in which the of­fence was com­mit­ted has jur­is­dic­tion.

² If the of­fence was com­mit­ted in more than one place or if the res­ult oc­curred in more than one place, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity is:

a.

the can­ton in which the crim­in­al in­vest­ig­a­tion was first ini­ti­ated;

b.

if no crim­in­al in­vest­ig­a­tion has been ini­ti­ated: the can­ton of res­id­ence of the claimant;

c.

if no crim­in­al in­vest­ig­a­tion has been ini­ti­ated and the claimant is not res­id­ent in Switzer­land: the can­ton in which the first ap­plic­a­tion for dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion was made.

¹ Dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion pay­able to the vic­tim may be re­duced or re­fused if the vic­tim has con­trib­uted to the oc­cur­rence or ag­grav­a­tion of the harm.

² Dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion pay­able to the re­l­at­ives of vic­tim may be re­duced or re­fused if they or the vic­tim have con­trib­uted to the oc­cur­rence or ag­grav­a­tion of the harm.

³ Sat­is­fac­tion may be re­duced if the claimant is res­id­ent abroad and the amount of sat­is­fac­tion would be dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the cost of liv­ing at the place of res­id­ence.

No in­terest is pay­able on the dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion.

¹ The can­tons shall provide for a simple and rap­id pro­ced­ure. The de­cision on an ap­plic­a­tion for an ad­vance pay­ment of dam­ages shall be based on a sum­mary as­sess­ment of the ap­plic­a­tion.

² The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall es­tab­lish the facts of the case ex of­fi­cio.

³ The can­tons shall ap­point a single ap­peals body that is in­de­pend­ent of the ad­min­is­tra­tion; this body shall have full power of re­view.

¹ The ad­min­is­trat­ive and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies shall not charge vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives any costs for their pro­ced­ures re­lat­ing to the pro­vi­sion of coun­selling, emer­gency as­sist­ance, longer-term as­sist­ance, dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion.

² Costs may be im­posed on per­sons who bring leg­al pro­ceed­ings in bad faith.

³ Vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives shall not be re­quired to re­im­burse the costs of a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive ap­poin­ted to act on their be­half free of charge.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to pro­mote the spe­cial­ist train­ing of staff at coun­selling centres and of those re­spons­ible for vic­tim sup­port.

² It shall take ac­count of the spe­cial needs of cer­tain cat­egor­ies of vic­tims, in par­tic­u­lar the needs of minors who are vic­tims of sexu­al of­fences.

¹ If a can­ton in­curs par­tic­u­larly high ex­penses as a res­ult of ex­traordin­ary events, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may make com­pens­at­ory pay­ments to the can­ton con­cerned.

² In the case of ex­traordin­ary events, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall co­ordin­ate the activ­it­ies of the coun­selling centres and the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies in co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons to the ex­tent re­quired.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­sure that the ef­fect­ive­ness, ap­pro­pri­ate­ness and fin­an­cial vi­ab­il­ity of the meas­ures un­der this Act are reg­u­larly re­viewed.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall peri­od­ic­ally ad­just the max­im­um and min­im­um amounts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 20 para­graph 3 in line with in­fla­tion; it may ad­just the max­im­um amounts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 23 para­graph 2 in line with in­fla­tion.

² It shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions for the cal­cu­la­tion of the can­ton­al lump-sum con­tri­bu­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18 para­graph 2 and on the stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys re­quired for this pur­pose.

³ It may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the or­gan­isa­tion of con­tri­bu­tions to the cost of longer-term as­sist­ance from third parties, dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion and, in par­tic­u­lar, set flat rates or tar­iffs for sat­is­fac­tion. It may de­vi­ate from the rules in the SBA²² in or­der to take ac­count of the par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances of vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives.

The Vic­tim Sup­port Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991²³ is re­pealed.

The amend­ment of the cur­rent le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the an­nex.

The pre­vi­ous law ap­plies to:

a.

claims for dam­ages or sat­is­fac­tion for of­fences com­mit­ted be­fore this Act comes in­to force; for claims arising from of­fences com­mit­ted less than two years be­fore this Act comes in­to force, the time lim­its set out in Art­icle 25 ap­ply;

b.

ap­plic­a­tions for con­tri­bu­tions to costs that were sub­mit­ted be­fore this Act comes in­to force.

Ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the new SBA or the new VSA comes in­to force first, the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions of the new VSA will read as fol­lows when the act that comes in­to force later comes in­to force or if both acts come in­to force at the same time:²⁵

…

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2009²⁶