New UK report on religion, belief, equality and human rights

The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission recently published a report Religion or belief, equality and human rights in England and Wales.  

The report examines the law in relation to equality, human rights and religion or belief and how it is understood and applied in the workplace and in public services. The research discovered tensions between some religious and secular views on equality and human rights law in these settings

The report is largely based on interviews and roundtable discussions with a number of interest groups including religious or belief groups, human rights and/or equality groups, public service staff, and academics and lawyers. 

The report found that legal judgments are not a reliable indicator of the place of religion in society, as cases are often context-specific. This means they don't necessarily reflect common experiences, and the outcome of cases can be contradictory.

Interviewees viewed litigation as a weapon of last resort and agreed on the need for ground rules to mediate public debate so as to avoid unnecessary court action.

The report also found a greater prevalence of discrimination against Muslims compared to other religious groups.

The UK Human Rights Blog says that interests groups generally agreed that:

• persons whose religion belief is important to them have a responsibility to make sensible career choices and may have to make personal sacrifices to avoid conflict with the law or professional guidelines;
• religion or belief groups are legitimate interest groups like any other but should have no privileged role in the formation of law and policy;
• In balancing competing interests in the workplace and public service, the principle of proportionality should be applied.

The report also noted that minority religion or belief groups who participated in the study overwhelmingly viewed human rights law in a positive light.

Click here to see the UK Human Rights Blog article on the report.

This autumn, the Equality and Human Rights Commission will be holding a series of seminars on religion or belief and the application of the UK's equality and human rights laws - click here for more details.

Meanwhile, four British Christians who claim that they lost their jobs because of religious discrimination are taking their cases to the European Court of Human Rights.  The individuals had lost employment tribunals relating to their beliefs.