by Robin Cozijnsen, Menco Rasterhoff, Nienke de Visser and Mirjam Winkels –
law clerks in the criminal law department of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in
the Netherlands
On January 15th the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave judgment in the cases of Eweida and others v. the United Kingdom. All
cases (applicants Eweida, Chaplin, McFarlane and Ladele) deal with the right to
manifest religion in the workplace. This has been a controversial topic over
the past few years in many European countries. The assessment always involves
striking a fair balance between the right of the employee to manifest his
religion and the employer’s reason for interference with that right.
