RELIGIOUS FREEDOM | APRIL 27, 2017

Victory for Religious Freedom at Council of Europe

A major victory for minority religions in Europe was pronounced today, 27 April 2017, when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted in favor of Resolution 2163 “The Protection of the Right of Parents and Children Belonging to Religious Minorities.”

Introduced by PACE Rapporteur Valeriu Ghiletchi, the resolution was precipitated by the growing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of European member States. With the growing diversity comes the potential for religious minorities to be ostracized for their views and values by a more dominant majority.

PACE Rapporteur Valeriu Ghiletchi introduced the resolution precipitated by the growing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of European member States

Following a two-year investigation and intense debate emerged the following resolution and recommendation, approved by the Assembly to encourage the 47 member States of the Council of Europe to protect these fundamental rights against discrimination and to:

Affirm the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion for all individuals, including the right not to adhere to any religion, and protect the right of all not to be compelled to perform actions that go against their deeply held moral or religious beliefs, while ensuring that access to services lawfully provided is maintained and the right of others to be free from discrimination is protected;

Promote reasonable accommodation of the deeply held moral or religious beliefs of all individuals in cases of serious conflict to enable citizens to freely manifest their religion or belief in private or in public, within the limits defined by legislation and provided that this is not detrimental to the rights of others;
Repeal any law or rule which establishes a discriminatory distinction between religious minorities and majority beliefs;
Ensure easy-to-implement options for children or parents to obtain exemptions from compulsory State religious education programmes that are in conflict with their deeply held moral or religious beliefs; such options may include non-confessional teaching of religion, providing information on a plurality of religions, and ethics programmes.

The Assembly finds that new religious movements and religious minorities are especially at risk regarding the infringement of these rights by some member States.

PACE Rapporteur Valeriu Ghiletchiand and Eric Roux, Western Europe Regional Director STAND

Rapporteur Ghiletchi was appointed by the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of PACE following a motion for resolution (No. 13333) which stated in part:

The Assembly finds that new religious movements and religious minorities are especially at risk regarding the infringement of these rights by some member States.
Derogatory labeling of religious minorities as ‘sects’, ‘sectarian’, ‘cults’ or any other term generates bias and stigmatization and leads to undue restrictions to a parent’s right to raise and educate their children in conformity with their own beliefs.
The Assembly therefore resolves to study and identify cases where member States do not respect the rights of parents to educate children according to their own religious and philosophical convictions, especially with regard to minorities.

Rapporteur Ghiletchi tenaciously fought for these positive recommendations and was applauded for his courage by the entire Assembly at the close of today’s argument. His action and that of the Parliamentary Assembly signify a strong defense against discrimination and persecution and significant advance for religious freedom in Europe.

The full measure is available here.

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