First arrests under burqa ban as leading lawyer says legislation won’t survive Strasbourg

Readers of the Bulletin may recall that an earlier Bulletin outlined that the French Constitutional Court has approved legislation banning the Islamic full veil in public. The legislation, which imposes a 150 euro fine and/or a citizenship course for those who are found to be wearing the full veil in public, has now taken effect. Two women wearing Islamic face veils were arrested in Paris last week for holding an unauthorised protest against the legislation.

In order to challenge this piece of legislation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), a conviction would need to be secured in the French courts and upheld on appeal. Examining the question as to whether the burqa ban would stand up at the ECtHR, an article from The Guardian argues that France would need to show that the threat of terrorism overrode the women's right to wear the face veil for religious reasons.

Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion and can only be subject to limitations which are necessary in a democratic society to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Citing human rights lawyer Lord Pannick QC, the article outlines that it is expected that the ECtHR would find the legislation in breach of Article 9. This view appears to find backing in the 2010 ruling of Ahmet Arslan and Others v. Turkey (French only). Please click here to view the press release for this case. In "Aslan", the ECtHR found the conviction under anti-terrorism legislation of members of a religious group walking the public streets clothed in turbans and certain religious garments breached Article 9. A distinction was drawn between the wearing of religious dress in public and the wearing of it in schools for example, where there could be justification for insisting on religious neutrality.

Lord Pannick QC is quoted as commenting "there is no public interest to weigh against the manifestation of religious beliefs, only the unease of the non-believer that women should wish so to conceal themselves from the public."

Please click here to view a piece on the Human Rights in Ireland website.

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