Ludwig A. Minelli

Mr. Ludwig Amadeus Minelli

Statement:

"Everything that lives deserves protection. Therefore, human rights and animal welfare are identical twins."

Mr Ludwig Amadeus Minelli is a Swiss lawyer and journalist.
Ludwig A. Minelli worked for an accounting firm and for the Swiss Safekeeping Company after his commercial diploma. From 1956 to 1959 he worked as a journalist for the Zurich daily newspaper Die Tat, then from 1959 to 1960 for the tabloid Blick. From 1960 to 1961 he was assistant to the management of the Munich publishing house Kindler & Schiermeyer, from 1961 to 1964 he was editor at the domestic service of United Press International in Zurich, and between 1964 and 1974 he was the first Swiss correspondent of the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Minelli studied law at the University of Zurich at a late stage (graduating in 1981) and became a lawyer specializing in human rights at the age of 54.
In 1978 he founded the Swiss Society for the European Convention on Human Rights (SGEMKO). The rulings of the Swiss Federal Court known as Minelli I (BGE 99 Ia 262), Minelli II (BGE 102 Ia 279) and Minelli III (BGE 118 Ia 64) are significant for the living conditions of prisoners. They are also examples of the possibility existing in Switzerland of subjecting cantonal decrees to a review of their conformity with the Federal Constitution within 30 days of their promulgation in the procedure of abstract review of norms by means of an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court. Since June 1981 he has been editing the quarterly journal Mensch und Recht published by SGEMKO.
In 1998, he founded the Dignitas association in Zurich, which offers suicide assistance to people who are willing to die, especially those from abroad.
Minelli is co-editor of the journal Aufklärung und Kritik. The author and film director Michèle Minelli is his daughter. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation.