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13th Dec, 2007, 30th
Maghar (Samvat 539 Nanakshahi )
French Highest Court
Upholds Turban Ban in Schools
“We are
disappointed that the judgment of the Conseil d’Etat attached preponderant
weight to the principle of secularism and failed to give adequate weight to
deeply held religious beliefs,” said Stephen Grosz, Partner and Head of
Public Law and Human Rights Department in Bindman and Partners, a leading UK
Human Rights law firm.
“Attachment to one’s faith, to one’s language and culture, and to one’s way
of life, thought and belief – all this is natural, legitimate and profoundly
human…To deny that is to sow the seeds of humiliation. A “clash of
civilizations will not be averted by forcing everyone to think and believe
alike; cultural and religious diversity must be accepted everywhere and by
all.”: French President
Nicolas
Sarkozy
speaking at the UN General Assembly in
New York
on 25th Sept 2007.
Paris,
France
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Last
week the Conseil Detat,
France’s
highest court, ruled that the ban against the turban in schools was legal
because there was a greater interest to be served in preserving secularity
than a religious belief.
Exactly
three years after Bikramjit Singh, Jasvir Singh and Ranjit Singh were
expelled from the Louise-Michel High School of
Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), the Conseil d’Etat ruled on 5th December
2007 that the keski , the
under-turban they wore to school, was not a discreet sign but an ostensible
manifestation of religion which is prohibited by the French law dated 15
March 2004.
Lawyers
acting for the 3 boys, who had been instructed by UNITED SIKHS and the
French Turban Action Committee, had argued before the Conseil d’Etat that
the expulsion of the 3 schoolboys had infringed article 9 and article 14 of
the European Convention of Human Rights, which provided for the freedom to
manifest one’s religion and the right not to be discriminated, respectively.
Under
article 9(2), of the Convention, the right to manifest one’s religion can
only be limited on grounds of public safety, security and health.
The
Conseil d’Etat concluded that in the interest of secularism in public
schools, the permanent expulsion of a student who does not conform to the
legal ban on wearing of ostensible religious signs “does not lead to an
excessive infringement upon the freedom of thought, conscience and religion
guaranteed by Article 9”.
Further,
the Conseil d’Etat said that since the ban applied to all religions signs,
it was not discriminatory against the Sikhs, under article 14.
Even
though the ban on religious signs in schools affected all religious
communities, the ban has only been challenged by 6 Sikh French schoolboys to
date. Three of Sikh boys were expelled in the years following the first
expulsions.
“We are
disappointed that the judgment of the Conseil d’Etat attached preponderant
weight to the principle of secularism and failed to give adequate weight to
deeply held religious beliefs,” said Stephen Grosz, Partner and Head of
Public Law and Human Rights Department in Bindman and Partners, a leading UK
Human Rights law firm.
“UNITED
SIKHS has instructed Stephen Grosz, Rabinder Singh QC and junior counsel
Schona Jolly to file the appeals to the European Court of Human Rights and
the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC),” said Mejindarpal Kaur, UNITED SIKHS
director who has led the Right To Turban campaign since 2004.
“We will
be seeking to file the appeals on behalf of all the 6 schoolboys in the
European Human Rights Court and the UNHRC by late January,” she added.
“We will
go to the ends to meet our objective and will never remove our Turbans,”
said Gurdial Singh, head of the French Turban Action Committee, who is also
the father of one of the expelled schoolboys. “If the French courts cannot
give us justice, we have faith that the international courts will understand
that the turban is an integral part of a Sikh and banning it is a
substantial violation of a Sikh’s right to practice his faith,”said Shingara
Singh, UNITED SIKHS director. Shingara Singh’s case was filed by UNITED
SIKHS at the European Human Rights Court last June and his passport case
will be filed with the UN HRC in the next few months. French authorities
refused to issue Shingara Singh’s replacement driving licence and French
passport because he refused to remove his turban for his ID photos.
“Having
taken note of French President, M Sarkozy’s call for diversity in the
United Nations Assembly last September, this
judgment appears disappointing even if it is not a surprise to me,” said
Kudrat Singh, who has been in the forefront of the Right To Turban campaign
in
France.
“I can
only say that this judgment confirms the dysfunctional treatment of Sikhs by
a “country with a proud tradition of Human Rights’, for the last 5 years, “
he added.
On 25th
Sept 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy
had called for respect for diversity, national identities, religion, beliefs
and cultures during his address to the UN General Assembly in
New York.
He had
said, “Attachment to one’s faith, to one’s language and culture, and to
one’s way of life, thought and belief – all this is natural, legitimate and
profoundly human.”
“To deny
that is to sow the seeds of humiliation. It stokes the fires of the very
nationalism, fanaticism and terrorism we claim to be fighting.” A “clash of
civilizations,” he said, “will not be averted by forcing everyone to think
and believe alike; cultural and religious diversity must be accepted
everywhere and by all.”
The UN,
he said, embodies no one religious belief or ideology. “It embodies what is
universal in all ideologies, all religions, all beliefs… which is why it is
the only place in the world where all people can speak to one another and
understand each other.”
Issued
by
Mejindarpal Kaur
Director
International Civil and Human Rights Advocacy (ICHRA)
UNITED SIKHS
44- (0) 7709830442 or 1- 646 315 3909
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