Government and Administration Organisation Act
(GAOA)

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude, amend or with­draw from treat­ies un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law at its own be­hest in as far as it is au­thor­ised to do so by a fed­er­al act or by an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty ap­proved by the Fed­er­al As­sembly. Au­thor­isa­tion to con­clude an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty in­cludes au­thor­isa­tion to amend or with­draw from it.⁶

^1bis It may with­draw from an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty at its own be­hest in as far as the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion provides for with­draw­al.⁷

² It may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies of lim­ited scope at its own be­hest. It may like­wise in­de­pend­ently make amend­ments of lim­ited scope to treat­ies or with­draw from in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies of lim­ited scope.⁸

3 In­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies or amend­ments of lim­ited scope are those that:⁹

a.

do not cre­ate new ob­lig­a­tions for Switzer­land and do not con­sti­tute a waiver of ex­ist­ing rights;

b.

serve to im­ple­ment treat­ies ap­proved by the Fed­er­al As­sembly and simply provide more de­tail on rights, ob­lig­a­tions or or­gan­isa­tion­al prin­ciples that are already set out in the main treaty;

c.

primar­ily con­cern the au­thor­it­ies and in­volve tech­nic­al ad­min­is­trat­ive is­sues.¹⁰

⁴ In­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies or amend­ments of lim­ited scope do not in­clude those that:¹¹

a.

meet any of the re­quire­ments for an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum on an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty un­der Art­icle 141 para­graph 1 let­ter d of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;

b.

con­tain pro­vi­sions on mat­ters the reg­u­la­tion of which falls solely un­der can­ton­al jur­is­dic­tion;

c.

cause non-re­cur­ring ex­pendit­ure ex­ceed­ing five mil­lion francs or re­cur­ring ex­pendit­ure of more than two mil­lion francs per year.¹²