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Guide on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights Guide on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights Freedom of thought, Conscience and religion Updated on 30 April 2021 This Guide has been prepared by the Registry and does not bind the Court. Guide on Article 9 of the Convention – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Publishers or organisations wishing to translate and/or reproduce all or part of this report in the form of a printed or electronic publication are invited to contact [email protected] for information on the authorisation procedure. If you wish to know which translations of the Case-Law Guides are currently under way, please see Pending translations. This Guide was originally drafted in French. It is updated regularly and, most recently, on 30 April 2021. It may be subject to editorial revision. The Case-Law Guides are available for downloading at www.echr.coe.int (Case-law – Case-law analysis – Case-law guides). For publication updates please follow the Court’s Twitter account at https://twitter.com/ECHR_CEDH. © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights, 2021 European Court of Human Rights 2/99 Last update: 30.04.2021 Guide on Article 9 of the Convention – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Table of contents Note to readers .............................................................................................. 5 Introduction ................................................................................................... 6 I. General principles and applicability ........................................................... 8 A. The importance of Article 9 of the Convention in a democratic society and the locus standi of religious bodies ............................................................................................................ 8 B. Convictions protected under Article 9 ........................................................................................ 8 C. The right to hold a belief and the right to manifest it .............................................................. 11 D. Negative and positive obligations on the State ........................................................................ 16 1. Interference in the exercise of protected rights and justification thereof ......................... 16 2. Positive obligations on Contracting States ......................................................................... 20 E. Overlaps between the safeguards of Article 9 and the other Convention provisions .............. 20 II. Actions protected under Article 9 ........................................................... 23 A. Negative aspect ........................................................................................................................ 23 1. The right not to practice a religion or to reveal one’s beliefs ............................................ 23 2. Conscientious objection: the right not to act contrary to one’s conscience and convictions .......................................................................................................................... 24 B. Positive aspect .......................................................................................................................... 29 1. General principles ............................................................................................................... 29 2. Freedom of religion and physical and mental health issues............................................... 30 3. Observance of dietary laws ................................................................................................. 31 4. Wearing of religious clothing and symbols ......................................................................... 32 5. Religious freedom, family and education of children ......................................................... 38 6. Preaching and proselytism .................................................................................................. 42 7. Freedom of religious worship ............................................................................................. 43 8. Places and buildings of worship .......................................................................................... 46 C. Freedom of religion and immigration ....................................................................................... 49 1. Residence and employment of foreigners in the national territory and freedom of religion ................................................................................................................................ 49 2. Expulsion to a country which violates freedom of religion ................................................ 51 III. The State’s obligations as guarantor of freedom of religion .................. 52 A. Negative obligations: obligation not to impede the normal functioning of religious organisations ............................................................................................................................ 52 1. Legal status of religious organisations in the contracting States ....................................... 52 2. Recognition, registration and dissolution of religious organisations ................................. 54 3. Use by the State of derogatory terms against a religious community ............................... 60 4. Financial and tax measures ................................................................................................. 62 5. Measures taken against religiously inspired political parties ............................................. 68 B. Negative obligations: respect for the autonomy of religious organisations ............................ 69 1. Principle of the autonomy of religious organisations ......................................................... 69 2. State interference in intra- or inter-denominational conflicts ........................................... 70 3. Disputes between religious organisations and their members (adherents and ministers of religion)........................................................................................................... 75 European Court of Human Rights 3/99 Last update: 30.04.2021 Guide on Article 9 of the Convention – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion 4. Disputes between religious organisations and their employees ........................................ 76 C. Positive obligations ................................................................................................................... 80 1. Protection against physical, verbal or symbolic attacks by third persons .......................... 80 2. Religion at the workplace, in the army and in court........................................................... 83 3. Religious freedom for prisoners ......................................................................................... 86 List of cited cases ......................................................................................... 90 European Court of Human Rights 4/99 Last update: 30.04.2021 Guide on Article 9 of the Convention – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Note to readers This Guide is part of the series of Case-Law Guides published by the European Court of Human Rights (hereafter “the Court”, “the European Court” or “the Strasbourg Court”) to inform legal practitioners about the fundamental judgments and decisions delivered by the Strasbourg Court. This particular Guide analyses and sums up the case-law under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereafter “the Convention” or “the European Convention”). Readers will find herein the key principles in this area and the relevant precedents. The case-law cited has been selected among the leading, major, and/or recent judgments and decisions.* The Court’s judgments and decisions serve not only to decide those cases brought before it but, more generally, to elucidate, safeguard and develop the rules instituted by the Convention, thereby contributing to the observance by the States of the engagements undertaken by them as Contracting Parties (Ireland v. the United Kingdom, § 154, 18 January 1978, Series A no. 25, and, more recently, Jeronovičs v. Latvia [GC], no. 44898/10, § 109, ECHR 2016). The mission of the system set up by the Convention is thus to determine issues of public policy in the general interest, thereby raising the standards of protection of human rights and extending human rights jurisprudence throughout the community of the Convention States (Konstantin Markin v. Russia [GC], § 89, no. 30078/06, ECHR 2012). Indeed, the Court has emphasised the Convention’s role as a “constitutional instrument of European public order” in the field of human rights (Bosphorus Hava Yolları Turizm ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi v. Ireland [GC], no. 45036/98, § 156, ECHR 2005-VI). This Guide contains references to keywords for each cited Article of the Convention and its Additional Protocols. The legal issues dealt with in each case are summarised in a List of keywords, chosen from a thesaurus of terms taken (in most cases) directly from the text of the Convention and its Protocols. The HUDOC database of the Court’s case-law enables searches to be made by keyword. Searching with these keywords enables a group of documents with similar legal content to be found (the Court’s reasoning and conclusions in each case are summarised through the keywords). Keywords for individual cases can be found by clicking on the Case Details tag in HUDOC. For further information about the HUDOC database and the keywords, please see the HUDOC
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