UN Strategy to Combat Religious Intolerance, Discrimination and Violence: Is It Fit for Purpose?
According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments, as well as social hostilities by a variety of actors, have reached...
Law Society of Canadian Province Nova Scotia is Found to Have Overstepped its Mandate, Violating Religious Freedoms
The first of a series of decisions that will shape how the balance is to be struck between Canada’s constitutionally protected rights of equality and freedom of religion has held...
Translating Questions Of Religion Conversions to Issues of Human Rights: The Proposed Ban on Religious Conversions in a Secular Indian State
In recent months, the political focus in India has shifted towards the sensitive issue of “forced religious conversions”, known as, “Ghar Wapsi” (Homecoming Ceremony). The conversions of 200 Muslims in...
Clash of Rights at Centre of Canadian Law School Controversy
The debate over whether to recognise a proposed law school in Canada has pitted fundamental freedoms against one another. Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private, Christian university located in...
Meriam Ibrahim is Freed: Weaving together Law, Politics and Civil Society
This post is the second part of a two-part report by Professor Jon Yorke, following the litigation surrounding Meriam Ibrahim. The first part can be found here. On 22...
Religious anti-gay refusal – valuing dissent without making it lawful
According to Supreme Court judge, Lady Hale, the law has yet to find the right balance between accommodating people’s beliefs and avoiding anti-gay discrimination. Her remarks, made during a lecture...
Professor Frances Raday Comments on SAS v France
In the Grand Chamber judgment in the case of S.A.S. v. France, the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that Law no. 2010-1192 of 11 October 2010...
SAS v France in Context: the margin of appreciation doctrine and protection of minorities
In SAS v France the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that a French law prohibiting the concealment of the face in public places did...
Conform or be confined: S.A.S. v France
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on 1st July that France’s ban on face coverings, known as the burqa-ban, does not breach the European Convention on Human Rights. The...
International Law and the Denial of Minority Status to Indian Muslims
On 27th May, the Indian Minister of Minority Affairs, Najma Heptullah, declared that ‘Muslims are not minorities, Parsis are’, the suggestion being that Muslims are too large in number to...
Burwell v Hobby Lobby – a narrow decision?
This week the Supreme Court of the United States delivered judgment in the eagerly anticipated case of Burwell v Hobby Lobby, involving a challenge to a provision of the Patient...
Meriam Ibrahim Saved from 100 Lashes and the Death Penalty
On 11 May 2014, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim was found guilty by the Al-Haj Yousif Criminal Court of charges under the Sudanese Penal Code (1991), Articles 126 for the crime of...
