EU guidelines on religious freedom

1 Jul 2013 | Europe and Central Asia, News, Religion and Culture

The European Union Foreign Affairs Council last week released its guidelines on promoting and protecting religious freedom. The guidelines, designed to set standards for the EU’s external dealings, make, for the most part, encouraging reading, Padraig Reidy writes

The section on free expression sets out thus:

“Freedom of religion or belief and the freedom of expression are interdependent, interrelated and mutually reinforcing rights, protecting all persons — not religions or beliefs in themselves — and protecting also the right to express opinions on any or all religions and beliefs.”

The distinction made here between protecting “persons” as opposed to “religions and beliefs in themselves” is very important, boiling down to the simple notion that individuals have rights but ideologies don’t.

Further on, the guidelines suggest that the EU will recall, when appropriate, that the right to freedom of religion or belief, as enshrined in relevant international standards, does not include the right to have a religion or a belief that is free from criticism or ridicule.

As an argument against modern versions of blasphemy laws: laws which claim to “protect religious feelings”. Russia recently passed such a law, criminalising “public actions expressing clear disrespect for society and committed with the goal of offending religious feelings of the faithful”. The Organisation of Islamic Conference, meanwhile, is seeking to have “defamation of religion” recognised at United Nations level. Any EU attempt to curb this move is somewhat undermined by the fact that the OIC has copied its definition of blasphemy from Ireland’s 2009 Defamation Act.

The guidelines suggest that the EU should resist attempts to curb religious speech as long as there is not a “prima facie case that this expression constitutes hates speech”. But they do also raise the expectation that Europe should condemn any violence carried out in relation to “offensive speech”.

The European Platform on Religious Intolerance and Discrimination (EPRID) has welcomed the guidelines. In a statement, it said:

“Promoting freedom of religion or belief is therefore not only a moral or legal obligation, but also a strategic political choice. The adoption of these Guidelines today gives a strong signal that [it] is now a priority for the EU.”