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THE EUROPEAN COURT of Human Rights yesterday upheld a Belgian ban on wearing the full-face niqab veil in public, calling the restriction “necessary in a democratic society”.
The veil is a controversial issue across Europe, with some countries banning the garment in public in the name of safety and rights groups arguing that this amounts to a violation of civil liberties.
The court ruled that the ban sought to guarantee social cohesion, the “protection of the rights and freedoms of others” and that it was “necessary in a democratic society”, a statement said.
The EU’s top rights court said a bye-law adopted in June 2008 in three Belgian municipalities “could be regarded as proportionate to the aim pursued, namely the preservation of the conditions of ‘living together’.”
It said a country should also be given a “wide margin of appreciation in deciding whether and to what extent a limitation of the right to manifest one’s religion or beliefs was ‘necessary’.”
Belgian banned the wearing of the full-face veil in June 2011. It prohibits appearing in public “with a face masked or hidden, in whole or in part, in such a way as to be unidentifiable”.
Violations can result in fines and up to seven days in jail.
In May 2012, pockets of riots broke out in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek after a woman in a niqab was asked by two police officers to remove the garment.
France was the first European country to ban the niqab in April 2011 and there have been around 1,600 arrests since coming in to force.
The ECHR had already ruled on a challenge to the French law in 2014 when it also rejected arguments that the restriction breached religious freedom and individual human rights.
Ban ‘ensures public safety’
The Belgian case was brought by two Muslim women, Samia Belcacemi, a Belgian national, and Yamina Oussar, a Moroccan.
Both women said they chose of their own free will to wear the niqab and claimed their rights had been infringed and the law was discriminatory.
The court rejected this, saying that the law was designed to ensure “public safety, equality between men and women and a certain concept of living together in a society.”
After Belgium introduced the ban, Belcacemi continued wearing the veil for a while but stopped because of social pressure and fears she would be fined.
Oussar told the court that she had decided to stay at home, the statement from the court said.
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At least me dole and chilrens alowence is up so dat’ll offset some of cost for me ciggies. De kids will go hungry be4 I give up me Johnny Blus!
@Tweety McTweeter: How much will the tax on ancient stereotypes have to go up before you’ll break the habit?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: how much does the tax on snowflake reality rejectors have to go up before it takes effect
Stop smoking altogether! Can’t be bothered with the arguments it’ll hit lower income society! Don’t smoke then it won’t
@Gavin: yes give up if you can. I just worked out I save 167.00 on the additional tax alone. Next step stop my addiction to sugar by giving that up.
Just smoke weed instead it’s great.
@Craic head: good man, keep the Kinihens in business and guns on the street
Strange that this can be brought in over night, yet anything useful waits until the end of the year. Pity they can’t be this productive on a daily basis!
It should be put up by € 10 actually if not more. Major cause of hospital admissions due to smoking related diseases.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: and the huge tax smokers pay offsets the cost.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: They won’t, as if people quit smoking and drinking, they’re screwed! If they really wanted people to quit, it’d be €50 a pack, but they need the money.
I’ve no intentions of quitting, sure I get them from abroad anyway.
@Joe Travers: and wait until you see the final days of your / they’re lives due to smoking -shocking.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: I’m sure a pensioner who has smoked all their lives and paid taxes really deserves that.
Think before you talk Deirdre, it’s ok for someone working but if that’s all a pensioner looks forward too, I think that sort of an increase is disgusting. And im an ex smoker.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: no one will buy and all trade will be done black market, most of it is now anyway. Polish and Chinese smokes are available for €25 a carton (200)
Im approximately 18 months cigarette free.
Personally I find these increases disgraceful.
I’m not one of these ex smokers that blab such s€€€ like “each one of them takes bla bla off you life” or eugh their disgusting.
Surprised.
The reason why I find this increase disgraceful is 1/ The amount of tax imposed on the product by the government and 2/ Pensioners, some of them have worked hard all their lives and now live on the state pension, these increases are alright for a working person but the pensioner will go without an item such as clothing or heating to get their cigarettes.
So to all you ex or anti smokers who gloat about this, think a little harder not harsher.
At least we’ll get some of that welfare rise back….
The people selling smokes on the street will love this as they are going to have a lot more cash in their pockets.
12 euro a pack? I would expect each cigarette to be laced with cocaine for that kind of money.
Every year its the same targets…why not put the price of a pint up to €12…alcohol is more a problem in this country than smoking. If someone wants to smoke its their choice. Whoever keeps saying to put up the price of cigarettes obvioulys never worked in hotels. This country is a joke!! Its already the most expensive for everything…they will just start turning tourists away next!
Gave up the flags on the 20th Feb, haven’t saved a penny, what ever I spent on fags I now eat that amount extra and more lol, as far as I am concerned they didn’t put them up enough, put a €5 increase on them and ban public smoking everywhere, hell just ban smoking, and if anyone caught selling on the black market it’s 20 years minimum
@Mick Hannigan: vote for mick “the ban” hannigan
@Mick Hannigan: that’s just silly talk
@Andrew Mockler: also ban you from commenting lol :)
@jagmerc: get back in your sad box
@Mick Hannigan: very arsh, Mick, very arsh.
Time to quit smoking i think,not going to pay 12 euro for a packet of cigarettes. 100 euro a week over the next 9 months would give me a nice family holiday.
@Doung O Driscoll: The book is very good and works for many people . The pharma industry is inclined to highlight the difficulty with nicotine addiction in order to push more nicotine via patches,chewing gum and what have you but the book will make you laugh and once you close the book you don’t even want to smoke -
@Doung O Driscoll: I gave them up when they put Benson and Hedges up to 1.50 a packet….f
eck it I said, I aint payi g that, and havnt had a fag since all those years ago now
I am off them nearly a year . Up a few lbs but happy i did it .
€0.60 a cigarette now with six puffs per cigarette equating to 10cent per puff.
Very few smokers left now – either in the ground or quit
I last my job last month. I was in the social welfare office to arrange payment of an overpayment last year when I started work, and I told them when they asked that I didn’t expect to be entitled to dole sice I quit a job but I was encouraged to, as it could stand against me to have a gap. Somebody like me shouldn’t be getting the dole. I quit my job!
@M: idiot
@M: If you feel bad about it you could always give the money to a charity or homeless shelter and live on fresh air until you find another job.
Baxtards.
They’ll never force me to quit, never! I love me fags i do.
Value the health of our nation,by taxing everything to the fking hilt.
They could make a tax of € 0.05 per posted comment and €0.01 per thumbs up on the journal.ie and eliminate cigarette, soft drink and likely liquor and ale tales, plus no water charges. Surely that would work out?
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