Comments on: The Bill of Frights? https://freethinker.co.uk/2022/05/the-bill-of-frights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-bill-of-frights The magazine of freethought, open enquiry and irreverence Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:25:56 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 By: Geoff Wilson https://freethinker.co.uk/2022/05/the-bill-of-frights/#comment-22 Mon, 23 May 2022 18:38:51 +0000 https://freethinker.co.uk/?p=4202#comment-22 “The role of the court is to determine whether the claim is made in good faith, not whether it is a good faith. ”

I believe that may not be entirely true. As far back as 1982, it was established that

“The belief must be consistent with basic standards of human dignity or integrity. Manifestation of a religious belief, for instance, which involved subjecting others to torture or inhuman punishment would not qualify for protection.”
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2009/0219_09_0311.html

In other words, that is that it is a ‘good’ faith.

In addition I hope that the ability to allow the UK courts the ability to override Strasbourg case law and grant us greater freedom of speech will be a possibility following this bill.

What I also hope the bill will do is allow UK law to restrict the dissemination of religious ideas that contravene human rights with quite a high threshold, namely, those that have already been clearly and specifically condemned as contravening human rights.

In particular the dissemination of those elements of sharia law that contravene human rights as per Council of Europe resolution 2253, paragraph 6:

“he Assembly recalls that the European Court of Human Rights has already stated in Refah Partisi (The Welfare Party) and others v. Turkey that the institution of Sharia law and a theocratic regime are incompatible with the requirements of a democratic society. The Assembly fully agrees that Sharia rules on, for example, divorce and inheritance proceedings are clearly incompatible with the Convention, in particular its Article 14, which prohibits discrimination on grounds such as sex or religion, and Article 5 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention (ETS No. 117), which establishes equality between marital partners. Sharia law is also in contradiction with other provisions of the Convention and its additional protocols, including Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment), Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life), Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion), Article 10 (freedom of expression), Article 12 (right to marry), Article 1 of the Protocol to the Convention (ETS No. 9) (protection of property) and Protocols Nos. 6 (ETS No. 114) and 13 (ETS No. 187) abolishing the death penalty.”
https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=25353

It is to be hoped that both the teaching and practice of those elements of sharia could be made illegal in the UK.

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