CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- A resolution passed by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is being lauded as an important \u2013 although limited \u2013 recognition of religious and conscience rights in the public sphere.<\/p>\n\t\u201cThe important step with this resolution is the mention of the right to conscientious objection and the enlargement of its scope of application,\u201d Dr. Gr\u00e9gor Puppinck, director general of the European Centre for Law and Justice, told CNA April 29.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt is the first time that I see a document, a source of law, saying there is a right to conscientious objection and freedom of conscience in all 'morally sensitive matters,'\u201d he said, which means it applies to the fundamental right of parents to educate their children.<\/p>\n
\tResolution 1928, passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 24, says, \u201cThe Assembly therefore calls on member States to \u2026 accommodate religious beliefs in the public sphere by guaranteeing freedom of thought in relation to health care, education and the civil service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHowever, this accommodation is \u201cprovided that the rights of others to be free from discrimination are respected and that the access to lawful services is guaranteed.\u201d This has made some critics wary that rights of religious freedom will be viewed as inferior and secondary to abortion and gay \u201crights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Council of Europe, which works to promote co-operation among its 47 member states in the area of human rights, adopted the measure almost unanimously, by a vote of 148-3, with seven abstentions.<\/p>\n
\tThe resolution's adoption followed spirited debate on a report by an Italian representative, Luca Volonte, on \u201cviolence against religious communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe effort to pass the measure met strong resistance from Scandinavian delegates. One Danish representative, complained that the report \u201cinsists on putting religious rights above other fundamental rights \u2026 of course freedom of religion should be respected, but it should not stand in the way of the right to lawful service, the right to abortion and equality for all, regardless of their homosexuality or heterosexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tPuppinck explained that while \u201cthe wording of the resolution is not perfect\u201d and he would have preferred that it be \u201cstronger,\u201d it is not \u201cabsolutely bad\u201d and it will in fact \u201cmake it easier to uphold Christians' rights\u201d to education of children, freedom of expression and conscientious objection.<\/p>\n
\tThe resolution, he said, is a follow-up to a 2011 resolution of the Assembly which focused on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, which was re-iterated in strong terms in Resolution 1928.<\/p>\n
\tBecause it has become \u201cmore and more difficult to advocate in Europe\u201d for the three areas of religious freedom mentioned above, Puppinck explained that the resolution is a step forward as an affirmation of those rights.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThose rights were negated widely in northern Europe, and they are negated by the Socialist governments, so it's important to talk about and to recognize those rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe cited efforts in France, Spain, Germany and Russia which aim to decrease parental rights regarding the education of their children and use state education to promote secularist values.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn France we are facing a difficult time with our government, which does not at all respect parental rights,\u201d Puppinck explained. \u201cWe have some members of the French government who say children belong first to the state, to the community, and secondly to the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe therefore lauded the resolution for reaffirming the \u201crights of parents concerning the education of children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe part of the resolution restricting religious freedom when it clashes with other rights was neither authored by Volonte nor was it present in the original draft, Puppinck said. Rather, this language entered through amendments adopted after debate on the topic, and Volonte assented to them so as to gain a large majority of support for the resolution.<\/p>\n
\tVolonte chaired a seminar after the resolution's adoption which focused on the cases of two British Christians who were penalized in their workplaces for their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
\tIn January, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Shirly Chaplin, a nurse who was kept from wearing a cross at work, and Gary McFarlane, a therapist who was fired for saying he would be unable to give sex therapy to homosexual couples, had not had their rights unduly violated by U.K. workplace discrimination law.<\/p>\n
\tWhile acknowledging that the religious beliefs motivating their acts at work were worthy of protection, the court decided that British law in their cases fell within a wide \u201cmargin of appreciation,\u201d which gives legislatures and employers broad discretion about how to balance conflicting \u201crights.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tChaplin and McFarlane have appealed the decision to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which is also a body of the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n
\tThe assembly's resolutions influence the decisions of the court, Puppinck noted, adding that the cases of McFarlane and Chaplin were part of the motivation for introducing the resolution.<\/p>\n
\tIn the January decision against Chaplin and McFarlane, the court did find that British law had insufficiently protected another Christian, Nadia Eweida. It ruled that her freedom of religion had been breached after she was kept from wearing a cross in her employment at British Airways.<\/p>\n
\tAll these cases, and the resolution, are part of a growing trend of Europe's \u201cclash of rights\u201d cases involving Christian identity and expression in the public sphere.<\/p>\n
\tChaplin and McFarlane have appealed to the Grand Chamber saying that protections for the freedom of \u201cthought, conscience and religion\u201d will be effectively meaningless if the Court does not clarify how the rights of Christians, and other religious persons, are to be balanced with the rights upheld by secular persons and societies.<\/p>\n
\tThe Grand Chamber is not expected to decide whether to hear the case for several weeks.<\/p>\n
\n
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