Eight - Religious literacy, equalities and human rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2022
Summary
Introduction
This chapter examines six recent legal cases in England on religion or belief, to explore whether greater religious literacy on behalf of the employer or service provider, or employee or job applicant, might have resulted in solutions that would have avoided litigation.
Recent legal developments in relation to religion or belief have emerged in a context influenced by a tangled, historic and evolving relationship between church and state. Since the late 1970s, religious groups in England and Wales have been able to seek rights and protections if they could be identified with a racial or ethnic group. The Human Rights Act 1998 then enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law. Article 9 of the Convention protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion and their individual or communal manifestation (within limits). Consequently, religion or belief then became explicitly protected in England and Wales. Since 1998, domestic human rights and equality legislation has further developed, with religion or belief becoming recognised as an equality strand. The Equality Act 2006 brought into being the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in 2007 to be responsible for monitoring and promoting human rights and equality in Great Britain.
Following the enactment of the Equality Act 2010, religion or belief is protected specifically in employment and the provision of goods and services in England and Wales, alongside eight other protected grounds, including gender, marriage and civil partnership, and sexual orientation. There is also a duty on public sector organisations to foster equality and good relations. Certain exemptions from employment equality law are in place for employment for religious purposes.
Religion or belief cases are usually, although not invariably, taken first to an Employment Tribunal, then to an Employment Appeal Tribunal, then to the Court of Appeal, and finally to the Supreme Court. If unsuccessful through the domestic court system, claimants may apply for their case to be considered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. Equalities law distinguishes between direct and indirect discrimination. Direct religious discrimination occurs when an individual is treated less favourably than someone else because of their religious or philosophical beliefs. Indirect religious discrimination occurs when an individual is put at a disadvantage compared with others because of their religious or philosophical beliefs and this cannot be objectively justified.
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- Information
- Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice , pp. 135 - 164Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2015