Documents to download

This note examines the judgment in the case of Eweida and Others v the United Kingdom, handed down by the European Court of Human Rights on 15 January 2013. The case considered the restrictions an employer may justifiably place on workers’ freedom to manifest their religion in the workplace.

There were four applicants before the European Court, all of whom were practising Christians. Two applicants, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, had been prevented from wearing a cross at work. The third applicant, Lillian Ladele, worked for a local authority as a registrar of births, deaths and marriages. She viewed same-sex civil partnerships as contrary to God’s law and was disciplined for refusing to officiate at them. The fourth applicant, Gary McFarlane, provided sex therapy and relationship counselling. He was dismissed for failing to assure his employer that he would, in line with the company’s Equal Opportunities Policy, provide counselling services to same-sex couples.

The Court found that there had been a violation of Ms Eweida’s Convention rights but not those of the other three applicants.

Documents to download

Related posts

  • Food Banks in the UK

    Please note: for information on accessing food banks and food parcels during the pandemic please see our briefing Coronavirus: Support for household finances. For an account of developments in food bank activity over the crisis period see section 7 of this paper, Food Banks in the UK. Recent research means we have increasing amounts of data on food banks, giving us a fuller picture of their provision across the UK, and providing a more detailed picture of the characteristics of food bank users.