Marie-Claire Foblets

Framing multicultural challenges in freedom of religion terms: limitations of minimal rights for managing religious diversity in Europe

Multicultural challenges in Europe are being framed in human rights language, and in particular in terms of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The question is whether the practical case-by-case application of the fundamental right to freedom of religion in national and European case law facilitates a ‘deep (and normative) diversity’ in Europe or rather only allows space for a limiting or ‘conditioned diversity’ instead. While opening up possibilities for minorities to live out their lives in accordance to their deeply-held convictions, it seems to us that the human rights working frame in a predominantly ‘minimalist’ conception comes with its inherent limitations as to the management of Europes religious diversity. While human rights purport to liberate and protect, they also impose conditions, criteria and standards that are grounded in a Western vision of law, society and religion. Religious minorities stand to gain from playing by the human rights rules as long as they accept to mould, shape and limit their claims to fit dominant conceptions, which perhaps diverge from their own understandings, needs and aspirations. Drawing on case law collected through the RELIGARE project network, this article aims to illustrate some of the limitations and confines that Europes diverse communities face in the areas of the workplace, the public place, the family, and State support to religions.

Freedom of religion and belief in the European workplace Which way forward and what role for the European Union

In this concluding contribution to the special issue on practices of reasonable accommodation for religion or belief in the workplace, the striking differences and similarities between the six country studies dealing with England, the Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria, France and Turkey are discussed. An important observation that emerges from all six analyses, and gives reason for considerable optimism as regards the development of protection of religious freedom in Europe, is that reasonable accommodations are making headway on the ground, even if formal law has not given them binding force. This conclusion ends by addressing the role of European Union (EU) law in promoting labour market policies that can successfully reduce the impact of exclusions and promote the greatest possible inclusion with regard to religious affiliation and/or belief, and also proposes some specific avenues for EU initiative in this area.

Migrant Women caught between Islamic Family Law and Women's Rights. The Search for the Appropriate "Connecting Factor" in International Family Law

In recent decades ‘conflicts justice’ in the realm of international family law has undoubtedly gained momentum in most European immigration countries. This is largely due to an increase in the number of cases relating to family disputes among migrants submitted to the courts. In the first part of this contribution (§ 2: ‘The legal techniques at hand. The dramatic lack of adaptation of century-old techniques’) I briefly describe how ‘conflicts justice,’ in the domain of cross-cultural family relations, is facing the impact of an unprecedented cross-boundary mobility of people from all over the world. This cross-border mobility has engendered a new type of social and cultural pluralism in most European host countries. In the second part (§ 3: ‘The case of Moroccan women claiming protection under Belgian secular law’) I illustrate the discussion on possible legal solutions for handling the ‘conflicts justice’ consequence of this cross-border mobility by referring to the very problematic position of Moroccan women who have immigrated to Belgium.

Urban normative fields in Africa today

Many African cities are at grips with one of the most challenging changes in their demographic and cultural history. The increasingly heterogenous character of populations settled in urban centres has become a structural reality of the African city: important hubs of rural civilisation have been drained towards the urban centres. As a consequence of the implantation of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants originating in diverse cultures and ethnic groups in the cities, as well as of the profound transformation such a move brings about in the nature of their social relations, government and judicial authorities have over the last few years been forced to reconsider their policies in terms of a previously unknown pluralism of disparate ethnic traditions and civilizations, a view which is better adapted to the sociological realities of the African city.