Federal Act
on Archiving
(Archiving Act, ArchA)

¹ This Act reg­u­lates the archiv­ing of doc­u­ments from:

a.

the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion as defined in Art­icle 2 of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997³, and the units of the armed forces;

c.

Swiss dip­lo­mat­ic and con­su­lar mis­sions abroad;

d.⁴

the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Court, the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court, the Fed­er­al Pat­ent Court and the fed­er­al ap­peals and ar­bit­ra­tion com­mis­sions;

e.

the autonom­ous in­sti­tu­tions of the Con­fed­er­a­tion;

f.

the Swiss Na­tion­al Bank;

g.

ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees;

h.

oth­er pub­lic or private law bod­ies that ful­fil ex­ec­ut­ive tasks del­eg­ated to them by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, with the ex­cep­tion of the can­tons;

i.

former fed­er­al bod­ies.

² This Act also ap­plies to the use of archive re­cords be­long­ing to the Con­fed­er­a­tion by fed­er­al bod­ies and by third parties.

³ The Fed­er­al Su­preme Court shall reg­u­late the archiv­ing of their doc­u­ments in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples con­tained in this Act and in con­sulta­tion with the Swiss Fed­er­al Archives (Fed­er­al Archives).⁵

¹ Fed­er­al doc­u­ments that are valu­able for leg­al, polit­ic­al, eco­nom­ic, his­tor­ic­al, so­cial or cul­tur­al reas­ons shall be archived.

² Archiv­ing makes a con­tri­bu­tion to­wards leg­al cer­tainty as well as to the con­tinu­ous and ef­fi­cient man­age­ment of ad­min­is­trat­ive activ­it­ies. In par­tic­u­lar, it forms the basis for his­tor­ic­al and so­ci­olo­gic­al re­search.

¹ Doc­u­ments with­in the mean­ing of this Act are all re­cor­ded in­form­a­tion, ir­re­spect­ive of the me­di­um, that is re­ceived or pro­duced in the ful­fil­ment of the pub­lic du­ties of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, as well as all find­ing aids and sup­ple­ment­ary data that are re­quired in or­der to un­der­stand and use this in­form­a­tion.

² Archive re­cords are doc­u­ments that have been ac­cep­ted by the Fed­er­al Archives for safe­keep­ing or that are in­de­pend­ently archived by oth­er bod­ies in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples laid down in this Act.

³ Doc­u­ments that are of archiv­al value are doc­u­ments of leg­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive im­port­ance or which con­tain valu­able in­form­a­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Archives shall archive the doc­u­ments of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² The archiv­ing of can­ton­al doc­u­ments that have ori­gin­ated in the con­duct of fed­er­al tasks is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons, un­less a fed­er­al act provides oth­er­wise.

³ The Swiss Na­tion­al Bank and autonom­ous in­sti­tu­tions des­ig­nated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are re­spons­ible for the archiv­ing of their own doc­u­ments in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples of this Act.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Court, Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court, Fed­er­al Pat­ent Court and the fed­er­al ap­peals and ar­bit­ra­tion com­mis­sions shall of­fer their doc­u­ments to the Fed­er­al Archives for safe­keep­ing in the event that they are them­selves un­able to archive the doc­u­ments in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples of this Act.⁶

⁵ Oth­er pub­lic or private law bod­ies, provided they carry out ex­ec­ut­ive tasks del­eg­ated to them by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, are them­selves re­spons­ible for the archiv­ing of re­lated doc­u­ments in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples of this Act or shall of­fer these to the Fed­er­al Archives for safe­keep­ing. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act a cor­res­pond­ing or­din­ance.

¹ The Fed­er­al Archives shall ad­vise the of­fices re­quired to of­fer their re­cords for safe­keep­ing on the or­gan­isa­tion, man­age­ment, pre­ser­va­tion and de­liv­ery of their doc­u­ments. It may also of­fer such ser­vices to oth­er bod­ies.

² It has the power to con­sult re­gis­tries or in­form­a­tion man­age­ment centres of the of­fices re­quired to of­fer their re­cords for safe­keep­ing and to con­sult the con­di­tion of the doc­u­ments held there.

³ It shall is­sue dir­ect­ives to the of­fices re­quired to of­fer their re­cords for safe­keep­ing on:

a.

the man­age­ment, pre­ser­va­tion and de­liv­ery of doc­u­ments;

b.

the cre­ation and man­age­ment of par­al­lel archives.

The bod­ies des­ig­nated in Art­icle 1 para­graph 1 must of­fer all doc­u­ments that they no longer con­stantly re­quire to the Fed­er­al Archives for safe­keep­ing, provided they are not them­selves re­spons­ible for their archiv­ing.

¹ The Fed­er­al Archives, in co­oper­a­tion with the bod­ies des­ig­nated in Art­icle 1 para­graph 1, shall de­cide wheth­er doc­u­ments are of archiv­al value.

² Doc­u­ments that are as­sessed as be­ing of archiv­al value must be de­livered to the Fed­er­al Archives by the bod­ies re­quired to of­fer their re­cords for safe­keep­ing. Of­fices not re­quired to of­fer their re­cords for safe­keep­ing are re­spons­ible for their own archiv­ing.

³ The Fed­er­al Archives may tem­por­ar­ily safe­guard doc­u­ments that are as­sessed as not be­ing of archiv­al value if such safe­guard­ing is re­quired by fed­er­al law.

¹ Doc­u­ments that are sub­ject to the ob­lig­a­tion to be offered for safe­keep­ing must not be des­troyed without the con­sent of the Fed­er­al Archives.

² The Fed­er­al Archives may not des­troy doc­u­ments without the con­sent of the body that has de­livered them.

¹ The archive re­cords of the Con­fed­er­a­tion be­come avail­able for con­sulta­tion by the gen­er­al pub­lic free of charge after the ex­piry of a re­ten­tion peri­od of 30 years, sub­ject to the terms of Art­icles 11 and 12.

² Doc­u­ments that were ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic be­fore their de­liv­ery to the Fed­er­al Archives re­main ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic.

The re­ten­tion peri­od nor­mally be­gins on the date of the most re­cent doc­u­ment of a case or file.

¹ Archive re­cords that are clas­si­fied ac­cord­ing to the names of people and which con­tain sens­it­ive per­son­al data are sub­ject to a re­ten­tion peri­od of 50 years, un­less the per­son con­cerned has con­sen­ted to their con­sulta­tion.⁷

² The ex­ten­ded re­ten­tion peri­od ends three years after the death of the per­son con­cerned, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 12.

³ Con­sulta­tion for the pur­pose of re­search not re­lated to spe­cif­ic per­sons may be per­mit­ted dur­ing the ex­ten­ded re­ten­tion peri­od by the de­part­ment re­spons­ible, sub­ject to the im­pos­i­tion of re­strict­ive con­di­tions.

¹ If there is an over­rid­ing and le­git­im­ate pub­lic or private in­terest in pre­vent­ing the con­sulta­tion by third parties ofcer­taincat­egor­ies of archive re­cords, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may in an or­din­ance re­strict or pro­hib­it con­sulta­tion for a lim­ited peri­od fol­low­ing the ex­piry of the re­ten­tion peri­od.

² If there is a pre­dom­in­ant and le­git­im­ate pub­lic or private in­terest in pre­vent­ing the con­sulta­tion by third parties of archive re­cords in a spe­cif­ic case, then the body de­liv­er­ing the re­cords or the Fed­er­al Archives may re­strict or pro­hib­it con­sulta­tion for a lim­ited peri­od fol­low­ing the ex­piry of the re­ten­tion peri­od.

¹ At the re­quest of the Fed­er­al Archives, the body de­liv­er­ing the re­cords may re­lease archive re­cords to the pub­lic or al­low in­di­vidu­al per­sons to con­sult the re­cords be­fore ex­piry of the re­ten­tion peri­ods stip­u­lated in Art­icles 9, 11 or 12 para­graph 1, if:

a.

there are no stat­utory reg­u­la­tions that pre­vent this; and

b.

no over­rid­ing and le­git­im­ate pub­lic or private in­terests pre­clude con­sulta­tion.

² Such au­thor­isa­tions ap­ply to all ap­plic­ants sub­ject to the same con­di­tions.

³ The au­thor­isa­tion shall spe­cify how the archive re­cords are to be con­sul­ted. The con­sulta­tion may be made sub­ject to con­di­tions; in par­tic­u­lar, it may be re­quired that per­son­al data be rendered an­onym­ous.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails of the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure and the con­di­tions at­tached to con­sulta­tion un­less the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions of the law on ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ced­ure ap­ply.

¹ The bod­ies de­liv­er­ing the re­cords may also con­sult the re­cords they have de­livered dur­ing the re­ten­tion peri­od.

² In the case of per­son­al data, the bod­ies de­liv­er­ing the re­cords may con­sult the doc­u­ments they have de­livered dur­ing the re­ten­tion peri­od if they re­quire these:

a.

as evid­ence;

b.

for le­gis­lat­ive pur­poses or for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of justice;

c.

for stat­ist­ic­al ana­lys­is; or

d.

to de­cide on the grant­ing, re­stric­tion or re­fus­al of the right of the per­son con­cerned to con­sult doc­u­ments or to ob­tain in­form­a­tion.

³ Re­stric­tions on the basis of oth­er stat­utory reg­u­la­tions are re­served.

⁴ The archive re­cords must not be amended.

¹ The pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion and grant­ing per­mis­sion to con­sult re­cords to the per­sons con­cerned are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020⁹. Rul­ings on re­fus­als of in­form­a­tion and per­mis­sion to con­sult re­cords are is­sued by the bod­ies de­liv­er­ing the re­cords.¹⁰

² The Fed­er­al Archives may in ad­di­tion de­fer or re­strict the pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion if such pro­vi­sion is not com­pat­ible with the ef­fi­cient man­age­ment of ad­min­is­trat­ive activ­it­ies.

³ The per­sons con­cerned may not re­quest the de­struc­tion or cor­rec­tion of data; they may merely have the re­cords an­not­ated to the ef­fect that the data is dis­puted or in­cor­rect.

¹ The con­sulta­tion of be­quests or de­pos­its made by nat­ur­al or leg­al per­sons is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the ac­quis­i­tion con­tracts.

² In the ab­sence of such pro­vi­sions, the pro­vi­sions for fed­er­al archive re­cords ap­ply.

¹ The Fed­er­al Archives pre­serves the his­tor­ic­al archives of the Hel­ve­tian Re­pub­lic, the Me­di­ation Era and the Tag­satzung Peri­od.

² It un­der­takes to ob­tain archives and be­quests from per­sons un­der private or pub­lic law that are of im­port­ance to Switzer­land as a whole. It may enter in­to con­tracts for the ac­quis­i­tion of such archives.

³ It shall en­sure the se­cure and pro­fes­sion­al safe­keep­ing, clas­si­fic­a­tion and ac­cess­ib­il­ity of archive re­cords and par­ti­cip­ate in their ex­ploit­a­tion.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Archives shall co­oper­ate with oth­er fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies, the can­tons and with private in­di­vidu­als. It shall en­sure the pro­mo­tion of archiv­ing activ­it­ies. It shall col­lab­or­ate with na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al archiv­ing or­gan­isa­tions.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may au­thor­ise the Fed­er­al Archives as part of a ser­vice man­date to provide to third parties spe­cial­ist ser­vices with­in its area of re­spons­ib­il­ity, in par­tic­u­lar res­tor­a­tion and con­ser­va­tion work, as well as ad­vis­ory ser­vices in the field of in­form­a­tion man­age­ment. The terms and con­di­tions of such ser­vices shall be reg­u­lated by private law con­tracts.

² Such ser­vices may be provided as activ­it­ies an­cil­lary to the ful­fil­ment of stat­utory du­ties and may not be offered at be­low cost price.

¹ The use of the archive re­cords for com­mer­cial pur­poses re­quires au­thor­isa­tion.

² Au­thor­isa­tion may be made sub­ject to the con­trac­tu­al reg­u­la­tion of the scope of use and, if ap­plic­able, the par­ti­cip­a­tion of the Con­fed­er­a­tion in any profits made.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the re­quire­ments, pro­ced­ure and re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for au­thor­ising and en­ter­ing in­to con­tracts for the com­mer­cial use of archive re­cords.

¹ The archive re­cords of the Con­fed­er­a­tion are in­ali­en­able. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ex­cep­tions by means of an or­din­ance.

² Third parties may not ac­quire archive re­cords, even through ac­quis­it­ive pre­scrip­tion.

The Fed­er­al Archives shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on use. It may in par­tic­u­lar provide therein that per­sons who have been in ser­i­ous vi­ol­a­tion of this Act or the reg­u­la­tions on use are re­fused ac­cess to the Fed­er­al Archives.

A spe­ci­men copy must be provided free of charge of all work and pub­lic­a­tions that re­late wholly or partly to archive re­cords in the Fed­er­al Archives.

Any­one who pub­lishes in­form­a­tion from archive re­cords that is sub­ject to the re­ten­tion peri­od or is in any oth­er way ex­pressly pro­hib­ited from pub­lic­a­tion is li­able to a fine, un­less a more ser­i­ous of­fence has been com­mit­ted.¹¹

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² It reg­u­lates the de­liv­ery and archiv­ing of ser­vice re­cords of per­sons who work for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment on the basis of a private law con­tract of agency.

...¹²

¹ On ex­piry of the ap­plic­ab­il­ity of the Fed­er­al De­cree of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992¹³ on the Con­sulta­tion of the Files of the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, the pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply to its field of ap­plic­a­tion.

² Doc­u­ments with­in the mean­ing of the Fed­er­al De­cree may not be con­sul­ted by the fed­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion for 50 years from the date of the most re­cent doc­u­ments of a case or file.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the date on which this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment Date: 1 Oc­to­ber 1999¹⁴