Overview:

• Recognition and registration are amalgamated to some degree although due to the prevalence segmentation in the system, neither can be said to hold national consistency; national church status is bestowed in some cantons as a form of existential recognition yet such a status is sparingly available while legal registration which primarily manifests as financial benefits is available to only those groups which can fulfil delineated requirements.

• Delegation of the registration process to the cantonal level is restrictive (called segmentation).

• Informational requirements seem appropriate yet require monitoring for potential misuse against applicant groups

• Application approval being contingent on popular referendum, although it may seem fair and democratic, is not consistent with freedom of religion or belief provision; the right of a person or community to conduct their religious practice and receive basic acknowledgement of their existence from the state should not be a matter of public opinion for provisions protecting it have already been attested to by the Universal Declaration.

• Inconsistencies with regards to recognition law persist particularly as three cantons allow for a form of registration not provided for by any other canton; even between these three cantons procedures for registration vary.

• Public entity status and thereby financial aid is bestowed only to four religious communities to the exclusion of many others as a form of existential recognition with financial benefit.

Positive elements:

• Freedom of religion or belief is broadly, though not universally, upheld by the government in practice.

Recommendations:

• Remove all forms of segmentation in the system; this should in turn resolve inconsistencies in the legislation and laws regarding recognition and registration should in turn become national rather than cantonal.

• Revoke identified restriction tools and all part-mandatory registration procedures.

• To become receptive, establish a recognition system to bestow both existential recognition and legal registration across all belief systems and their derivatives and across multiple levels of activity and operation.