Federal Act
on Private Security Services provided Abroad
(PSSA)

The aim of this Act is to con­trib­ute to:

a.

safe­guard­ing the in­tern­al and ex­tern­al se­cur­ity of Switzer­land;

b.

real­ising Switzer­land’s for­eign policy ob­ject­ives;

c.

pre­serving Swiss neut­ral­ity;

d.

guar­an­tee­ing com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al law and, in par­tic­u­lar, of hu­man rights and of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­it­ari­an law.

1 This Act ap­plies to leg­al en­tit­ies and busi­ness as­so­ci­ations (com­pan­ies) that en­gage in any of the fol­low­ing activ­it­ies:

a.

provide, from Switzer­land, private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad;

b.

provide ser­vices in Switzer­land in con­nec­tion with private se­cur­ity ser­vices provided abroad;

c.

es­tab­lish, base, op­er­ate, or man­age a com­pany in Switzer­land that provides private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad or provides ser­vices in con­nec­tion there­with in Switzer­land or abroad;

d.

ex­er­cise con­trol from Switzer­land over a com­pany that provides private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad or provides ser­vices in con­nec­tion there­with in Switzer­land or abroad.

2 It ap­plies to per­sons in the ser­vice of com­pan­ies sub­ject to the present Act.

3 The pro­vi­sions of this Act per­tain­ing to com­pan­ies also ap­ply to nat­ur­al per­sons ex­er­cising the activ­it­ies des­ig­nated in para­graphs 1 and 2.

4 It also ap­plies to fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies that con­tract with a com­pany for the per­form­ance of pro­tec­tion tasks abroad.

1 This Act does not ap­ply to com­pan­ies that provide, from Switzer­land, in ter­rit­or­ies sub­ject to the Agree­ment of 21 June 1999³, between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion, of the one part, and the European Com­munity and its Mem­ber States, of the oth­er, on the Free Move­ment of Per­sons or sub­ject to the Con­ven­tion of 4 Janu­ary 1960⁴ es­tab­lish­ing the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation, any of the fol­low­ing private se­cur­ity ser­vices:

a.

the pro­tec­tion of per­sons;

b.

the guard­ing or sur­veil­lance of goods and prop­er­ties;

c.

se­cur­ity ser­vices at events.

2 It also does not ap­ply to com­pan­ies that:

a.

provide, in Switzer­land, a ser­vice in con­nec­tion with a private se­cur­ity ser­vice un­der para­graph 1;

b.

es­tab­lish, base, op­er­ate, or man­age in Switzer­land a com­pany that provides ser­vices un­der para­graph 1 or para­graph 2 let­ter a;

c.

ex­er­cise con­trol, from Switzer­land, over a com­pany that provides ser­vices un­der para­graph 1 or para­graph 2 let­ter a.

In this Act:

a.

private se­cur­ity ser­vice means, in par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing activ­it­ies car­ried out by a private com­pany:

1.

the pro­tec­tion of per­sons in com­plex en­vir­on­ments,

2.

the guard­ing or sur­veil­lance of goods and prop­er­ties in com­plex en­vir­on­ments,

3.

se­cur­ity ser­vices at events,

4.

the check­ing, de­ten­tion, or search­ing of per­sons, search­ing of premises or con­tain­ers, and seizure of ob­jects,

5.

guard­ing, caring for, and trans­port­ing pris­on­ers; op­er­at­ing pris­on fa­cil­it­ies; and as­sist­ing in op­er­at­ing camps for pris­on­ers of war or ci­vil­ian de­tain­ees,

6.

op­er­a­tion­al or lo­gist­ic­al sup­port for armed or se­cur­ity forces, in­so­far as such sup­port is not provided as part of a dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies as set out in art­icle 8,

7.

op­er­at­ing and main­tain­ing weapons sys­tems,

8.

ad­vising or train­ing mem­bers of armed or se­cur­ity forces,

9.

in­tel­li­gence activ­it­ies, es­pi­on­age, and coun­terespi­on­age;

b.

ser­vice in con­nec­tion with a private se­cur­ity ser­vicemeans:

1

re­cruit­ing or train­ing per­son­nel for private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad,

2.

provid­ing per­son­nel, dir­ectly or as an in­ter­me­di­ary, for a com­pany that of­fers private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad;

c.

dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­iesmeans:

dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies abroad in the con­text of an armed con­flict with­in the mean­ing of the Geneva Con­ven­tions⁵ and the Pro­to­cols I and II⁶.

1 A com­pany ex­er­cises con­trol over an­oth­er com­pany if it:

a.

dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly holds a ma­jor­ity of the votes in the highest de­cision-mak­ing body there­of;

b.

dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly holds the right to ap­point or re­move a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of the highest ex­ec­ut­ive or man­age­ment body there­of; or

c.

pur­su­ant to the art­icles of in­cor­por­a­tion, found­a­tion charter, a con­trac­tu­al agree­ment, or sim­il­ar in­stru­ment, is able to ex­ert a con­trolling in­flu­ence there­on.

2 Busi­ness as­so­ci­ations are con­sidered to be con­trolled if:

a.

an­oth­er com­pany is a mem­ber with un­lim­ited li­ab­il­ity of that busi­ness as­so­ci­ation;

b.

the con­trolling com­pany, as a gen­er­al part­ner in the busi­ness as­so­ci­ation, con­trib­utes funds in an amount ex­ceed­ing one third of the equity of the busi­ness as­so­ci­ation; or

c.

the con­trolling com­pany fur­nishes the busi­ness as­so­ci­ation or the gen­er­al part­ners there­of with re­im­burs­able funds in an amount ex­ceed­ing one half of the dif­fer­ence between the as­so­ci­ation’s as­sets and its li­ab­il­it­ies to­wards third parties.

1 Where a com­pany sub­con­tracts the pro­vi­sion of a se­cur­ity ser­vice or of a ser­vice con­nec­ted there­with to an­oth­er com­pany, it shall en­sure that the oth­er com­pany per­forms that ser­vice in keep­ing with the con­straints to which the sub­con­tract­ing com­pany is it­self sub­ject.

2 The li­ab­il­ity of the sub­con­tract­ing com­pany for harm caused by the oth­er com­pany is de­term­ined in ac­cord­ance with the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁷.

1 Com­pan­ies sub­ject to Art­icle 2 para­graphs 1, 3 and 4 must be­come sig­nat­or­ies to the In­ter­na­tion­al Code of Con­duct for Private Se­cur­ity Pro­viders, in the ver­sion dated 9 Novem­ber 2010 (Code of Con­duct)⁸.

2 The Fed­er­al De­part­ment to which the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity is sub­or­din­ate may de­term­ine that an amend­ment to the Code of Con­duct ap­plies to mat­ters gov­erned by this Act, provided that such amend­ment is not con­trary to the pro­vi­sions of this Act.

1 It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to re­cruit or train per­son­nel in Switzer­land for the pur­pose of dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies abroad;

b.

to provide per­son­nel, from Switzer­land, dir­ectly or as an in­ter­me­di­ary, for the pur­pose of dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies abroad;

c.

to es­tab­lish, base, op­er­ate, or man­age, in Switzer­land, a com­pany that re­cruits, trains, or provides per­son­nel, dir­ectly or as an in­ter­me­di­ary, for the pur­pose of dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies abroad;

d.

ex­er­cise con­trol, from Switzer­land, over a com­pany that re­cruits, trains, or provides per­son­nel, dir­ectly or as an in­ter­me­di­ary, for the pur­pose of dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies abroad.

2 Per­sons who are dom­i­ciled, or have their ha­bitu­al place of res­id­ence, in Switzer­land and are in the ser­vice of a com­pany that is sub­ject to this Act shall be pro­hib­ited from dir­ectly par­ti­cip­at­ing in hos­til­it­ies abroad.

It is pro­hib­ited:

a.

to provide, from Switzer­land, private se­cur­ity ser­vices or ser­vices in con­nec­tion there­with if it may be as­sumed that the re­cip­i­ents will use the ser­vices in con­nec­tion with the com­mis­sion of ser­i­ous hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions;

b.

to es­tab­lish, base, op­er­ate, or man­age, in Switzer­land, a com­pany that provides private se­cur­ity ser­vices, or ser­vices in con­nec­tion there­with, if it may be as­sumed that the re­cip­i­ents will use the ser­vices in con­nec­tion with the com­mis­sion of ser­i­ous vi­ol­a­tions of hu­man rights;

c.

to ex­er­cise con­trol, from Switzer­land, over a com­pany that provides private se­cur­ity ser­vices, or ser­vices in con­nec­tion there­with, if it may be as­sumed that the re­cip­i­ents will use the ser­vices in con­nec­tion with the com­mis­sion of ser­i­ous hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions.

1 Any com­pany in­tend­ing to carry out an activ­ity un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 shall de­clare to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity, in par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

a.

the nature, pro­vider, and place of per­form­ance of the in­ten­ded activ­ity;

b.

such de­tails on the prin­cip­al and on the re­cip­i­ent of the ser­vice as are ne­ces­sary for an eval­u­ation of the situ­ation;

c.

the per­son­nel to be de­ployed for the in­ten­ded activ­it­ies, and the train­ing they have re­ceived;

d.

an over­view of the busi­ness sec­tors in which the com­pany is act­ive;

e.

proof of ac­ces­sion to the Code of Con­duct⁹;

f.

the iden­tity of all per­sons bear­ing re­spons­ib­il­ity for the com­pany.

2 For com­pan­ies un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 let­ter d, the de­clar­a­tion re­quire­ment ap­plies both to the com­pany's own ex­er­cise of con­trol and to the activ­it­ies of the con­trolled com­pany.

3 If any sig­ni­fic­ant change in cir­cum­stances oc­curs sub­sequent to the de­clar­a­tion, the com­pany shall no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity without delay. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall in­form the com­pany forth­with as to wheth­er it may con­tin­ue to carry out the activ­ity in ques­tion.

1 Un­til such time as the com­pany has re­ceived from the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity no­ti­fic­a­tion or a de­cision pur­su­ant to Art­icles 12–14, it shall re­frain from car­ry­ing out the de­clared activ­it­ies.

2 Where the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity ini­ti­ates a re­view pro­ced­ure pur­su­ant to Art­icle 13, it may, by way of ex­cep­tion, re­lease the com­pany from its duty to re­frain from activ­it­ies for the dur­a­tion of the pro­ced­ure, if there is over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terest in do­ing so.

The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy the com­pany with­in four­teen days of re­ceipt of the de­clar­a­tion as to wheth­er the de­clared activ­ity gives cause for ini­ti­at­ing a re­view pro­ced­ure at that time.

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall ini­ti­ate a re­view pro­ced­ure where:

a.

there are in­dic­a­tions to sug­gest that the de­clared activ­ity could be in con­flict with the aims set out in art­icle 1;

b.

a sig­ni­fic­ant change in the cir­cum­stances re­lat­ing to a de­clared activ­ity has oc­curred sub­sequent to no­ti­fic­a­tion pur­su­ant to art­icle 12;

c.

it be­comes aware of the ex­er­cise of an activ­ity that has not been de­clared;

d.

it be­comes aware of a vi­ol­a­tion of Swiss law or of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

2 Where the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity be­comes aware of the ex­er­cise of an activ­ity that has not been de­clared, it shall in­form the com­pany of the ini­ti­ation of a re­view pro­ced­ure, and shall al­low the com­pany an op­por­tun­ity to sub­mit with­in ten days a state­ment in that re­gard. Art­icle 11 para­graph 1 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­sult with the au­thor­it­ies con­cerned.

4 It shall in­form the com­pany of the out­come of the re­view pro­ced­ure with­in thirty days. This time lim­it may be ex­ten­ded as cir­cum­stances re­quire.

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pro­hib­it in full or in part any activ­ity that is con­trary to the aims set out in Art­icle 1. In the case of the fol­low­ing activ­it­ies, in par­tic­u­lar, con­form­ity with those aims is sub­ject to thor­ough re­view:

a.

private se­cur­ity ser­vices provided to, per­sons or com­pan­ies and to for­eign in­sti­tu­tions in crisis or con­flict re­gions;

b.

private se­cur­ity ser­vices, or a ser­vice in con­nec­tion there­with, that may be of ser­vice to in­sti­tu­tions or per­sons in the com­mis­sion of hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions;

c.

op­er­a­tion­al or lo­gist­ic­al sup­port for for­eign armed or se­cur­ity forces;

d.

ser­vices in the do­main of mil­it­ary ex­pert­ise in con­nec­tion with a private se­cur­ity ser­vice;

e.

private se­cur­ity ser­vices, or a ser­vice in con­nec­tion there­with, that may be of ser­vice to ter­ror­ist groups or crim­in­al or­gan­isa­tions;

f.

the es­tab­lish­ment, basing, op­er­at­ing, man­age­ment, or con­trol of a com­pany that provides such ser­vices as set out un­der the fore­go­ing let­ters a-e.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pro­hib­it in full or in part the ex­er­cise of an activ­ity by a com­pany that:

a.

has in the past com­mit­ted ser­i­ous hu­man rights vi­ol­a­tions and has not taken suf­fi­cient pre­cau­tions to en­sure that there is no re­cur­rence there­of;

b.

de­ploys per­son­nel who do not pos­sess the re­quired train­ing for the in­ten­ded activ­ity;

c.

does not com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Con­duct¹⁰.

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pro­hib­it a com­pany from sub­con­tract­ing the provid­ing of a private se­cur­ity ser­vice, or a ser­vice in con­nec­tion there­with, where the com­pany that is to provide that ser­vice fails to com­ply with the con­straints set out in Art­icle 6, para­graph 1.

1 Where a mani­fest na­tion­al in­terest clearly pre­vails, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may by way of ex­cep­tion au­thor­ise an activ­ity to which Art­icles 8 and 9 do not ap­ply, but which would be sub­ject to pro­hib­i­tion pur­su­ant to Art­icle 14.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall sub­mit the case to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for a rul­ing.

3 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the ne­ces­sary con­trol meas­ures.

1 Where a mat­ter falls with­in the scope of this Act as well as with­in that of the War Ma­ter­i­al Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996¹¹, the Con­trol of Goods Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996¹², or the Em­bargo Act of 22 March 2002¹³, the au­thor­it­ies con­cerned shall de­term­ine which au­thor­ity co­ordin­ates the pro­ced­ure.

2 That au­thor­ity shall en­sure that the pro­ced­ure is con­duc­ted in as simple a man­ner as pos­sible, and shall make cer­tain that the com­pany is in­formed of all res­ults of the pro­ced­ure with­in the stat­utory time lim­its.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the char­ging of cost-cov­er­ing fees for:

a.

the re­view pro­ced­ure un­der Art­icle 13;

b.

pro­hib­i­tions is­sued un­der Art­icle 14;

c.

con­trol meas­ures un­der Art­icle 19.

2 For the rest, Art­icle 46a of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997¹⁴ ap­plies.

Com­pan­ies shall provide the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with all the in­form­a­tion re­quired for the re­view of activ­it­ies gov­erned by this Act, and shall sub­mit to it all the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments.

1 Where a com­pany at­tempts to in­flu­ence the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity or fails to sat­is­fy its re­quire­ment to co­oper­ate, and where all ef­forts on the part of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity to ob­tain the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments re­main fruit­less, that au­thor­ity may in the cases set out in Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 take the fol­low­ing over­sight meas­ures:

a.

un­an­nounced on-site in­spec­tion of com­pany premises;

b.

ex­am­in­a­tion of rel­ev­ant doc­u­ments;

c.

seizure of ma­ter­i­al.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may to that end call on the as­sist­ance of oth­er fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies as well as can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice forces.

1 Any per­son who, in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 8, car­ries out an activ­ity in con­nec­tion with dir­ect par­ti­cip­a­tion in hos­til­it­ies, or who dir­ectly par­ti­cip­ates in hos­til­it­ies, is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

2 Any per­son who car­ries out an activ­ity in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 9 shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

3 This pro­vi­sion does not pre­clude the pro­sec­u­tion of the per­son con­cerned un­der the Crim­in­al Code¹⁶ or to the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 Ju­ly 1927¹⁷ for a more ser­i­ous of­fence un­der those codes.

Any per­son who con­tra­venes a pro­hib­i­tion is­sued by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity pur­su­ant to Art­icle 14 is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year, or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1 Any per­son who:

a.

vi­ol­ates Art­icle 10 by fail­ing to de­clare an activ­ity;

b.

car­ries out, in full or in part, an activ­ity in breach of the re­quire­ment to re­frain from activ­it­ies un­der Art­icle 11 or Art­icle 39 para­graph 2,

is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year, or to a fine.

2 Where the act has been com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a mon­et­ary pen­alty is im­posed.

1 Any per­son who:

a.

re­fuses to fur­nish in­form­a­tion, to al­low the ex­am­in­a­tion of doc­u­ments, or to grant ac­cess to premises pur­su­ant to Art­icle 18 or Art­icle 19, para­graph 1;

b.

makes false state­ments,

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100,00 francs.

2 Where the act has been com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, a fine not ex­ceed­ing 40,000 francs is im­posed.

3 At­tempts and com­pli­city are also of­fences.

4 The right to pro­sec­ute is lim­ited to a peri­od of five years.

1 Art­icle 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹⁸ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law (ACLA) ap­plies to of­fences com­mit­ted with­in a busi­ness un­der­tak­ing.

2 Pur­su­ant to Art­icle 7 of ACLA, an in­vest­ig­a­tion to identi­fy the of­fend­ers may be dis­pensed with and the busi­ness un­der­tak­ing may be ordered to pay the fine in­stead in cases in which:

a.

the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the per­sons crim­in­ally li­able un­der Art­icle 6 of ACLA ne­ces­sit­ates in­vest­ig­at­ive meas­ures that would be dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the pen­alty in­curred; and

b.

the pen­alty for the con­tra­ven­tions gov­erned by this Act does not ex­ceed 20,000 francs.

1 Where the activ­ity of a leg­al en­tity, or of a gen­er­al or lim­ited part­ner­ship, con­tra­venes a stat­utory or of­fi­cial pro­hib­i­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der the dis­sol­u­tion and li­quid­a­tion of the leg­al en­tity or part­ner­ship con­cerned in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 11 April 1889¹⁹ on Debt En­force­ment and Bank­ruptcy.

2 Where the busi­ness un­der­tak­ing is a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der the li­quid­a­tion of the busi­ness as­sets and, as the case may be, de­le­tion of the un­der­tak­ing from the com­mer­cial re­gister.

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may con­fis­cate any sur­plus res­ult­ing from the li­quid­a­tion.

1 Of­fences un­der this Act are sub­ject to fed­er­al jur­is­dic­tion.

2 The au­thor­it­ies com­pet­ent for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act are sub­ject to a re­quire­ment to re­port any in­fringe­ments of which they ob­tain know­ledge in the course of car­ry­ing out their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies to the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.

1 The pub­lic au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and of the can­tons shall provide the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with the in­form­a­tion and per­son­al data re­quired for the en­force­ment of this Act.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall dis­close in­form­a­tion and per­son­al data to the fol­low­ing pub­lic au­thor­it­ies for the per­form­ance of their leg­al tasks:

a.

the fed­er­al and can­ton­al pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for the en­force­ment of this Act;

b.

the pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the War Ma­ter­i­al Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996²⁰, the Con­trol of Goods Act of 13 Decem­ber 1996²¹, and the Em­bargo Act of 22 March 2002²²;

c.

the crim­in­al au­thor­it­ies, in­so­far as the pro­sec­u­tion of felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours is at is­sue;

d.

the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing in­tern­al se­cur­ity;

e.

the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for for­eign af­fairs and for main­tain­ing ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;

f.

the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for the li­cens­ing and over­sight of private se­cur­ity ser­vices.

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may re­quest for­eign au­thor­it­ies to provide in­form­a­tion and per­son­al data re­quired for the en­force­ment of this Act. To this end, it may dis­close to them, in par­tic­u­lar, in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing:

a.

the nature, pro­vider, prin­cip­al, re­cip­i­ent, and place of per­form­ance of the activ­ity;

b.

the sec­tors in which the com­pany of­fer­ing private se­cur­ity ser­vices abroad is act­ive, and the iden­tity of all per­sons who are re­spons­ible for the com­pany.

2 Where the for­eign state grants re­cipro­city, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may dis­close to it the in­form­a­tion set out in para­graph 1, sub­ject to the as­sur­ance from the for­eign au­thor­ity that the data:

a.

will be pro­cessed only for aims in con­form­ity with this Act; and

b.

will be used in crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings only in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al leg­al as­sist­ance.

1 The Con­fed­er­a­tion is au­thor­ised to con­tract with com­pan­ies that provide private se­cur­ity ser­vices for the per­form­ance of the fol­low­ing pro­tec­tion tasks abroad:

a.

the pro­tec­tion of per­sons;

b.

the guard­ing or sur­veil­lance of goods and prop­er­ties.

2 The fed­er­al au­thor­ity that con­tracts with a com­pany (con­tract­ing au­thor­ity) shall con­sult with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der Art­icle 38 para­graph 2 and with the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of De­fence, Civil Pro­tec­tion, and Sport.

1 Pri­or to con­tract­ing with a com­pany, the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the com­pany in ques­tion meets the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

it is able to provide the re­quired guar­an­tees con­cern­ing the re­cruit­ment, train­ing, and over­sight of its per­son­nel;

b.

its good repu­ta­tion and ir­re­proach­able con­duct in busi­ness are at­tested to both by its ad­her­ence to the Code of Con­duct²³ and com­pli­ance with the pro­vi­sions therein and, in par­tic­u­lar, by:

1.

ex­per­i­ence in the field,

2.

ref­er­ences, or

3.

mem­ber­ship of a pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­ation;

c.

it is solvent;

d.

it has an ad­equate in­tern­al con­trol sys­tem which en­sures that its per­son­nel com­ply with es­tab­lished stand­ards of con­duct and that dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures are taken where mis­con­duct oc­curs;

e.

it is au­thor­ised un­der the ap­plic­able law to carry out activ­it­ies in the do­main of private se­cur­ity;

f.

it has li­ab­il­ity in­sur­ance cov­er­age in an amount com­men­sur­ate with the risk in­curred.

2 The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may, by way of ex­cep­tion, con­tract with a com­pany that does not pos­sess li­ab­il­ity in­sur­ance cov­er­age, where:

a.

pur­chas­ing such in­sur­ance would en­gender dis­pro­por­tion­ate costs to the com­pany; and

b.

the li­ab­il­ity risk and the amount of any com­pens­at­ory dam­ages to be borne by the Con­fed­er­a­tion may be as­sessed as low.

1 The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the se­cur­ity per­son­nel of the com­pany have re­ceived ad­equate train­ing, com­men­sur­ate with the pro­tec­tion task as­signed to them and in ac­cord­ance with ap­plic­able in­ter­na­tion­al and na­tion­al law.

2 Train­ing shall cov­er, in par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing is­sues:

a.

re­spect for fun­da­ment­al rights, per­son­al pri­vacy rights, and pro­ced­ur­al law;

b.

the use of phys­ic­al force and weapons when act­ing in self-de­fence or in situ­ations of ne­ces­sity;

c.

deal­ing with per­sons of­fer­ing res­ist­ance or pre­pared to re­sort to vi­ol­ence;

d.

provid­ing first aid;

e.

as­sess­ing health risks en­tailed in the use of force;

f.

com­bat­ing cor­rup­tion.

3 The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity may, by way of ex­cep­tion, con­tract with a com­pany that does not fully meet the re­quire­ments set out in para­graphs 1 and 2, on con­di­tion that there is no oth­er com­pany that meets those re­quire­ments at the place at which the ser­vice is to be provided and that the pro­tec­tion task can­not oth­er­wise be ac­com­plished.

4 In such a case, the max­im­um dur­a­tion for which a con­tract may be con­cluded is six months. The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall take meas­ures to en­sure that the com­pany ful­fils the re­quire­ments set out in para­graphs 1 and 2 with­in as short a time as pos­sible. Such meas­ures shall be stip­u­lated in the con­tract.

The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall make cer­tain that per­son­nel are iden­ti­fi­able when act­ing in the ex­er­cise of their func­tion.

1 All per­son­nel shall, as a gen­er­al rule, be un­armed.

2 Where the situ­ation abroad re­quires that any per­son­nel, by way of ex­cep­tion, carry a weapon so as to be able to re­act in self-de­fence or in a situ­ation of ne­ces­sity, the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall spe­cify this in the con­tract.

3 The con­tract­ing au­thor­ity shall as­cer­tain that the per­son­nel are in pos­ses­sion of the per­mits re­quired un­der the ap­plic­able law.

4 The weapons le­gis­la­tion of the place at which the pro­tec­tion task is to be per­formed ap­plies.

1 Where it is pos­sible to ac­com­plish a pro­tec­tion task only through the use of force or oth­er po­lice meas­ures as defined in the Use of Force Act of 20 March 2008²⁴, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may grant per­mis­sion to do so even in situ­ations oth­er than those of self-de­fence or of ne­ces­sity.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall make cer­tain that the per­son­nel have re­ceived the ap­pro­pri­ate train­ing.

3 The law at the place of de­ploy­ment ap­plies.

The sub­con­tract­ing of pro­tec­tion tasks is pro­hib­ited without the pri­or writ­ten con­sent of the con­tract­ing au­thor­ity.

1 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pre­pare a re­port on its activ­it­ies, to be sub­mit­ted to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil each year.

2 The re­port shall be made pub­lic.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act pro­vi­sions for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act. In par­tic­u­lar, it shall de­term­ine:

a.

the spe­cif­ics of the de­clar­a­tion pro­ced­ure (art. 10);

b.²⁵

the list of par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive per­son­al data and the cat­egor­ies of data to be pro­cessed un­der Art­icle 28, as well as their re­ten­tion peri­ods;

c.

the re­quired terms and con­di­tions of con­tracts by a fed­er­al au­thor­ity for the ser­vices of a com­pany.

2 It shall ap­point the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

1 Any activ­ity sub­ject to de­clar­a­tion un­der this Act, and which is be­ing car­ried out at the time of the Act’s entry in­to force, must be de­clared to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with­in three months of the com­mence­ment date of this Act.

2 Where the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity ini­ti­ates a re­view pro­ced­ure, it shall in­form the com­pany as to wheth­er it must pro­vi­sion­ally re­frain, in full or in part, from car­ry­ing out the de­clared activ­ity.

3 Where the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in­tends to pro­hib­it an activ­ity that is be­ing car­ried out at the time of this Act’s entry in­to force, and which the com­pany con­cerned plans to con­tin­ue, the au­thor­ity may grant the com­pany a reas­on­able peri­od of grace in or­der to achieve com­pli­ance with the stat­utory pro­vi­sions.

1 This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment Date: 1 Septem­ber 2015²⁶