The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has held that there was no violation of the right to freedom of religion under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for refusing to exempt two Muslim pupils from compulsory mixed swimming lessons.
The case concerned the refusal of Muslim parents to send their daughters, who had not reached the age of puberty, to compulsory mixed swimming lessons as part of their schooling and the authorities’ refusal to grant them an exemption. Relying on Article 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion), the applicants alleged that the requirement to send their daughters to mixed swimming lessons was contrary to their religious convictions.
The Court found that while the applicants’ right to manifest their religion was at issue and there was an interference with said freedom of religion, there had been no violation of Article 9 of the Convention. The Court emphasised the special role that schools play in the process of social integration, particularly where children are of foreign origin. It observed that the children’s interest in a full education, facilitating their successful social integration according to local customs and mores, took precedence over the parents’ wish to have their daughters exempted from mixed swimming lessons and that the children’s interest in attending swimming lessons was not just to learn to swim, but above all to take part in that activity with all the other pupils, with no exception on account of the children’s origin or their parents’ religious or philosophical convictions.
The Court also noted that the authorities had offered the applicants very flexible arrangements to reduce the impact of the children’s attendance at mixed swimming classes on their parents’ religious convictions, such as allowing their daughters to wear a burkini. It also noted that the procedure in the present case had been accessible and had enabled the applicants to have the merits of their application for an exemption examined.
The Court also highlighted that Member States enjoyed a considerable margin of appreciation regarding matters relating to the link between State and religions, and the significance to be given to religion in society – particularly where these matters arose in teaching and State education.
In summary the Court found that, by giving precedence to the children’s obligation to follow the full school curriculum and their successful integration over the applicants’ private interest in obtaining an exemption from mixed swimming lessons for their daughters on religious grounds, the domestic authorities had not exceeded the considerable margin of appreciation afforded to them in the present case, which concerned compulsory education.
Click here for the judgement in Osmanoǧlu and Kocabaş v. Switzerland (in French).