The OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting starts in Warsaw on 26 September. The EHF will be there again. We will arrive that night and intervene in the plenary session the following day (Tuesday 27 September) when the agenda in the morning covers freedom of conscience and related issues of concern to us. That evening we are running a side meeting on the theme: “How can Freedom of Religion and Belief be reconciled with Equality and Non-Discrimination in Democratic Societies?”
From the time of Constantine the dominant church in any country in Europe was commonly identified with the state. Even after state and church ceased imposing a single religion on all, with scant regard for any conflicting conscientious beliefs, the implicit assumption was that the state should accommodate the dominant church and that civil law should bow before religious law.
Today with much less homogeneous communities an alternative governing principle is in the ascendant: that the law should above all safeguard individual human rights. This brings recognition that freedom to hold a religion or belief is absolute, but also that the right to manifest it is conditional on (among other things) the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. The dominant churches are having to come to terms with being players among many others in democratic societies. Devout believers are finding that their conscientious manifestation of a religion or belief may infringe others' rights to equality and non-discrimination. When religious organisations exercise the collective right of their members to manifest their beliefs the effect on others can be substantial.
Potential conflicts can arise in many contexts: at work, in schools, in the public space, in the exercise of public office, in the delivery of public services, in the application of family law and so on. How can these clashing rights and freedoms be reconciled? Can either claim priority? If not, how can freedom to manifest a religion or belief be maximised without undue impact on the rights and freedoms of others? What should be the position in law of religious organisations?
The meeting will use examples from real life to explore these questions and seek some general principles to guide us in finding answers.