The Federal Court in Switzerland has ruled that local authorities can impose fines on people hiking nude in the Alps, throwing out an appeal by a man who was fined after hiking naked past a family picnic area.
Judges ruled that the canton of Appenzell, a deeply devout and conservative area, had been entitled to uphold a law on public decency, adding that the ban on naked hiking was only a marginal infringement on personal freedom.
Switzerland doesn’t have a law against public nudity but it does have one against public indecency and the judges ruled that it was not inappropriate to classify naked hiking as a breach of decency. Naked hiking is apparently an increasingly popular pastime in Switzerland but the ruling affects the whole country and the hikers will now have to find somewhere else to bare their assets.
Appenzell is so conservative in its ways, it only granted women the right to vote in 1990.