“Minority rights have a growing importance and this has entered the public mind.”
Another issue is the individual’ s right to religious freedom – a person’ s religion is a very important aspect of a human’s identity;it touches and influences his or her innermost convictions, conscience and behavior. An insult to their religion can be felt as an insult to one’ s innermost self, and restrictions on how to practice one’s religion are therefore felt more deeply than restrictions in other aspects of life. A person that believes in a religion will want to act upon their belief – if this is forbidden by law it can result in a massive inner conflict that can lead to conflicts with law and – if more people face this conflict – also in conflict in society (examples could include be the obligation to swear a religious oath, compulsory military service, questions of religious symbols in public places, and prohibitions of ritual slaughter or circumcision). The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is granted by law in the European Convention of Human Rights. In legal cases concerning the application of this Convention people can apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Can you display a crucifix in a school? One of the most discussed cases of the ECHR is the case 'Lautsi and others vs. Italy' that concerned the display of religious symbols in public school classrooms. Mrs. Lautsi was a citizen of Finland as well as Italy whose sons went to school in Italy. In this school a crucifix was fixed to the wall in each classroom as it is customary in Italian public schools. Mrs. Lautsi felt that the school should be a neutral space to prevent a certain religion being imposed and that crucifixes in a public school were an infringement of the principle of secularism. Her request to remove the crucifixes was refused in Italy and she applied to the ECHR. The lower Chamber of the Court voted unanimously that there had indeed been a violation of Mrs. Lautsi’s (and her son’s) 'negative' right to freedom from religion. The Chamber argued that it was impossible not to see Mozaik 35 I Religion/s and Politics
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