LIMITATION OF THE FREEDOM TO MANIFEST ONE’S RELIGION: THE INTERPRETATION BY THE ECTHR OF THE “RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF OTHERS"

Abstract

During the last decades, the limitation of the freedom to manifest one’s religion has been a highly controversial issue. Certain European states have restricted the use and wearing of some religious symbols and dresses, and the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR” or the “Court”) has reviewed several of those situations. In order for a restriction to be legitimate, it must pursue a legitimate aim, and one of the possible legitimate aims is the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. Several decisions of the Court in this area were studied, in order to clarify what this legitimate aim encompasses. It was concluded that the ECtHR usually does not perform an in-depth analysis of the concept. Nevertheless, some important inferences were made, from which some problems from the Court’s approach were also highlighted. Those problems derive on a lower degree of protection of the freedom to manifest one’s religion through religious symbols and dresses