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C. Recent court decisions Cases concerning religious slaughter were examined by nch courts as early as the 1930s. In 1936, the Jewish association of Valenciennes was forbidden to carry out religious slaughter of animals. However, such a judgement, which had been founded on a municipal ordinance making slaughter through pistol compulsory, was quashed by a decision of th e State Council of 27 March 1936.11 More recently the case Cha’are Shalom Ve Tsedek occurred. This case was examined by the European Court of Human Rights. As noted above, religious slaughter in France may only be carried out by religious slaughtermen certified by religious bodies approved by the competent French authorities. The applicant was an association which had not been approved as one of s religious bodies and alleged that the French authorities’ decision had violated its right to freedom of religion under Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The majority of Strasbourg judges maintained, on the one side, that France was entitled to use its discretionary power to approve or not a religious body and, on the other side, that the right to manifest one’s religion in observance (including ultra-orthodox Jews’ right to eat glatt meat) was granted by the possibility to easily obtain meat from animals slaughtered according to the applicant’s religious rite (for example by importing it from Belgium). Therefore, the Court held by 12 votes to 5 that there had been no violation of Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights.12
E N DN OT E S 1
See http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr. Journal Offic iel no. 181 of 7 August 2003. This decree repeals the decree no. 903 of 1 October 1997, relating to the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing. 3 It should be noted that France’s legal terms are “abattage rituel” and “sacrif r” instead of “religious slaughter” and “slaughterman”. 4 There have been four decrees concerning the granting of authorisations for slaughtermen charged with carrying out religious slaughter. For Jews, the decree of 1 July 1982 stipulates that the intercommunity rabbinical Commission shall authorise slaughtermen to carry out slaughter according to the Jewish rite. For Muslims, the decree of 15 December 1994 stipulates that the Great Mosque of Paris is approved as a religious body entitled to authorise s laughtermen to perform slaughter according to the Is lamic rite. Two subsequent decrees of 27 June 1996 also approved the Great Mosque of Lyons and the Great Mosque of Evry as igious bodies entitled to authorise slaughtermen to perform slaughte ding to the Islamic rite. 5 Journal Offic iel no. 296 of 21 December 1997. 6 See Written Question E-1288/01 of 3 May 20 by Struan Stevenson (PPE-DE) to the Commission: “Every year, tens of thousands sheep in France are slaughtered in an atrocious way by unskilled people in breach of EU regulations and religious trad ition at the Aid El Keb ir festival in Paris. Many of the methods of slaughter, where animals see each other die, are contrary to the detailed procedures set out in Islamic tradition. Additional pain and suffering is caused when animals are killed by unqualified people who do not have the necessary skills. The s laughter of animals en plei air rather than in slaughterhouses breaches the European Community legis lation and the requests of the European Community to France to enforce national law. What will the commission do to punish the French government for their flagrant disregard of law? Why has the commission failed to take action to prevent this illegal 2
practice, despite repeated requests?”. See also the answer given by Mr. Byrne on behalf of the Commission on 26 June 2001: “The Commission is well aware of the many complaints concerning the treatment of animals during this event. The fact that the French authorities have organised or tolerated the slaughter of a large number of animals under conditions which are undoubtedly in breach of Community legis lation is not acceptable. Member States are responsible for the enforcement of Community legis lation concerning the slaughter and killing of animals in accordance with the provis ions of Council directive 93/119/EC of 22 December 1993, on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing. The commission has been in regular contact with the French authorities on this matter, and before the Aid El Kebir in 2001 there were d irect contacts with the responsible French Minister. The Commission was informed of a number of improvements in the organisation of the 2001 event. In addition, the Commission was assured that all outdoor sites would be eliminated before 2004, and that in the meantime the number of sites would be progressively reduced. It was pointed out that a more amb itious timetable would risk serious public disorder. The commission considers that this risk has to be taken seriously”. 7 See Question no. 85705 of Mr Kert Christian (Union for a Mouvement Populaire - Bouches -du-Rhône) to the Ministry of Agriculture and F isheries. Mr Christian Kert drew the ention of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to the concerns of the animal welfare associations as to the slaughter of sheep during the Aid El Kebir in public p laces. Indeed, according to the European Directive 93/119/EC and the Decree no. 903 of 1 October 1997, it is forbidden to carry out religious slaughter outside a slaughterhouse, and to make exemption s ites availab le. Nonetheless, numerous exemption sites were set up at the time of Aid El Kebir. He also asked to know the concrete measures that the ministry was going to adopt in order to implement such rules the following year (Journal Offic iel of 14 February 2006). See also the answer: “The services of the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and those of the Ministry of Interior and of regional planning have sought solutions in order to make it pos to reconcile the legitimate attachment of Mus lims to religious slaughter with the necessary respect of the regulatory provis ions on animal protection, food hygiene and environmental protection. Search and evaluation of these solutions are encouraged by the organisation of conciliation meetings between the various concerned parties at the departmental level, to which Muslim representatives take now part. These meetings also make it possible to inform all the concerned partners of the list of the s laughterhouses opened especially on the occasion of this festival. In the areas where the slaughter capacity