The focus of the IEC’s investigations is on recent modern history, specifically, the period commencing around the year 1930 and continuing up to 1981. Why 1981? In 1981, seven years after Switzerland’s ratification of the European Human Rights Convention, the legal procedures for ordering involuntary commitment were incorporated into the Swiss Civil Code. While public authorities were still permitted under those provisions to institutionalise individuals against their will and for their own safety, the new statutes established conditions applicable nationwide for ordering such a major infringement of an individual’s basic rights. Prior to the adoption of the federal provisions on involuntary commitment, the rules on administrative detention in almost all of the cantons failed, with few exceptions, to provide for any judicial appeals process in such cases. Further information: http://​www.​humanrights.​ch/​de/​menschenrechte-schweiz/​inneres/​person/​verschiedenes/​fuersorgerische-zwangsmassnahmen.

The term administrative detention refers to the deprivation of liberty ordered by not by a judicial authority, such as a court, but by a purely administrative authority. In Switzerland, it was not until 1981 that this practice was finally abandoned in all cantons.
Divergences between the various cantonal statutes, viewed against the backdrop of Switzerland’s federalist political structure, make it necessary to clarify the meaning of the term “administrative detention” in greater detail. One of the important tasks of the IEC research project is thus to identify and define the concept of administrative detention from an historical perspective. For this, the IEC’s research design (status as of May 2016) serves as a useful point of departure.

A non-disclosure term is the period of time during which a collection of sources in an archive may not be consulted without special authorization. The statutory basis for imposing a non-disclosure term on records preserved in the Federal Archives is found in the Federal Act on Archiving; in the cantons the non-disclosure terms are normally imposed in accordance with the provisions of the respective cantonal legislation. As a general rule, the non-disclosure term for administrative records is 30 years; for sensitive personal data and information concerning private individuals the non-disclosure term varies from 50 to 100 years, depending on the specific case and the applicable statutory provisions. The archives also contain documents that are not subject to a non-disclosure term – in particular, documents that were originally intended for publication (official publications, annual reports, newspapers, etc.). However, Article 7 of the Federal Act on the Rehabilitation of Administrative Detainees includes a provision granting researchers special rights of access to the records. That provision allows them to pursue their work without substantial restrictions. Classified personal data must nevertheless be redacted for purposes of analysis and publication. The individuals concerned also have the right to consult their own files.

Quantitative methods are employed in order to respond to questions concerning quantities. To do this, quantitative methods make use of statistical and mathematical procedures. This distinguishes them from qualitative approaches (that is, approaches concerned with the qualities of the objects being studied). The aim of qualitative methods is to analyse and understand the content of a source considered a whole.

 

The prerequisite for a quantitative historical study is the existence of sources that contain numerical data (quantified sources), or sources that can be translated into numerical data (quantifiable sources).  This means that is it possible either to rely on existing figures and statistics, or to prepare them oneself. Examples of such sources are the annual reports published by public authorities or institutions, or other reports that present information in the form of charts or tables. From them it is possible to collect the relevant numerical data, which can then be analysed using statistical processes.

 

Statistics can be broken down in to two categories. The first is termed descriptive statistics (sometimes also called «historical statistics» ), and refers to a single specific sampling of numerical data chosen for analysis. The second category is termed inferential or mathematical statistics, which is based on a random sampling used to calculate probabilities in order to draw conclusions with regard to a larger aggregate than was included in the sampling itself. For example, a descriptive statistical analysis of data collected from a survey of 1000 randomly chosen individuals in a city can be used, on the one hand, to draw conclusions about just those thousand people. Based on those 1000 inhabitants of the city, however, it is also possible, using inferential statistics, to draw further conclusions concerning the entire population of the city, whereby the quantitative findings are then considered to be accurate only within a certain range of probability.

 

The IEC makes use of quantitative methods in its research for such things as making estimates of the total number of administrative detentions ordered throughout Switzerland during the period from 1930 to 1981. For this, it relies primarily on descriptive statistical procedures. The aim is to determine the upper and lower range limits for estimating the probable number of administrative detention orders. In addition, the IEC also employs quantitative methods for calculating gender ratios in detention facilities or for making a quantitative comparison of the number of court-ordered, as opposed to administratively ordered, detentions.

 

The research design of the IEC on Administrative Detention includes a detailed formulation of questions to be considered in connection with «Data structures/quantitative analyses».