Freedom of religion or belief under the European Convention on Human Rights

History of civilization is full of wars because of religious differences. For many years, religious differences within a relatively homogeneous society perceived a problem that had to be eliminated. This understanding remained in existence untill the end of Second World War, and torture and killing were used as a common way of ?getting rid of this social problem?. In an earlier time, religious hatred in Former Republic of Yugoslavia, caused Muslim Bosnians genoside by Christian Serbians and this shameful event is a reminder that there still some people exist who are capable for killing because of religious difference. Those experiences proved the necessity that, among the other fundamental rights and freedoms, freedom of religion or belief deserves a special protection by international human rights law. First step, in order to satisfy this necessity, is taken under the supervision of League of Nations which is established ?to protect the peace and order on the world?. However, the results of attempts to provide an international protection for freedom of religion or belief under the auspices of this Organisation, reduced the scope and meaning of this freedom to a level of minorty rights and could not put the case clearly that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental freedom for ?everyone?. Establishment of United Nations after the Second World War, indicates a new tendency in understanding for the protection of freedom of religion or belief. The results of the actions taken under the supervision of UN demonstrates the withdrawal of minority rights approach and proves an adoption of a more individualised and generalised approach towards the protection system for individual rights and freedoms. This new approach can be observed in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Institutional reflections of those developments on European level are establishment of European Council and adoption of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Distinguishing feature of ECHR is that the Convention established a judiciary mechanism for individuals who claim that his/her rights and freedoms, granted by the Convention, were violated by one of the contracting states. Article 9 of the Convention guaranty freedom of religion or belief under the title of ?Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion?. Article 9 provides protection for both of the two main aspects of freedom of religion or belief namely; forum internum and forum externum. In this context, the first sentence of Article 9 regulates the inner sphere of freedom of religion or belief (forum internum) namely; freedom to have a religion or belief, freedom not to adopt a religion or belief at all and, freedom to change religion or belief. Such as the other international human rights documents, ECHR attributed an absolute guaranty to the inner sphere of freedom of religion or belief. However, freedom of religion or belief also includes freedom to act in accordance with the doctrines of one?s religion or belief. This freedom forms the external sphere of freedom of religion or belief namely; forum externum. The second part of Article 9(1) regulates forum externum by saying that everyone has the ?freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance?. Unlike the freedom to have a religion or belief, freedom to manifest a religion or belief is subject to limitations under Article 9(2). Article 9(2) requires states to show that the limitations are ?prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health and moral or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others? This structure is similar to that used to determine permissible limitations to a number of other rights in the Convention, in particular Article 8, Article 10 and Article 11. The Court has taken a similar approach to interpreting the limitation clauses in all the Articles outlined above despite the fact that although the Articles are similar, they are not identical. Most of the applications referring to freedom of religion or belief were dealt with the Commission. In its decisions, the Commission, rejected many of the applications, based on Article 9, at the admissibility stage. In a few number of applications which were found admissible, the Commission gave little indications about the scope of freedom of religion or belief. The Court held its first judgement regarding freedom of religion or belief in 1993 in Kokkinakis/ Greece case. Thus, it can be said that judgements of The Court are not even satisfactory in determining the scope of that freedom.