The case centres on an unnamed Swiss animal rights activist who was arrested in November 2018 over a series of break-ins and damages to slaughterhouses, butchers shops and restaurants across western Switzerland. A former patient at a Swiss psychiatric hospital unit joined the appeal, saying he, too, had been denied access to a vegan diet. The Swiss state now has three to four months to answer the ECHR’s questions, after which the European court is likely to clarify its position on whether the right to a vegan diet in prison and hospital is enshrined in the convention. The case has a special significance in French-speaking Switzerland, where “anti-speciesism” is a significant activist movement. While the right to a vegan diet in prison on religious grounds is already covered by case law in some European countries, the ECHR ruling could expand it by defining veganism as an ethical system of belief.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2022 00:57 UTC