Jehovah’s Witnesses filed a new case of religious segregation rooted in Belgium’s flawed system of recognition of religions denounced in 2022 by the European Court.
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers — Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed any more to provide spiritual assistance to inmates upon their request due to new regulations issued by the Director General of the Penitentiary Administration. On 22 August 2023, he sent a circular letter instructing prison administrations across Belgium to prohibit access to ministers of non-recognised religions for chaplaincy activities.
This circular letter hereby created a situation of discrimination and segregation among detainees. Those belonging to a state recognised religion or worldview are allowed to get spiritual assistance according to their needs but prisoners of other faiths do not have similar rights.
The General Director of the Penitentiary Administration took this decision despite the fact that Belgium had been condemned three years ago by the European Court of Human Rights for cancelling from 2018 on the tax exemption on places of worship and religious buildings belonging to religious associations which are not recognized by the State.
Strasbourg considered that this measure violated Article 14 of the European Convention (Prohibition of discrimination) and pressed Belgium to revise its system of state recognition of religions and worldviews. Jehovah’s Witnesses won the case and Belgium had to pay them 5000 EUR as financial compensation (See our Database of court decisions).
Since 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses have written six times to the Minister of Justice and have initiated legal proceedings due to this discrimination experienced in four Belgian prisons: Nivelles, Leuze, Dinant, and Leuven Central.
Until the 2022 ruling of the European Court pressing Belgium to revise its system of recognition of religion is implemented, Human Rights Without Frontiers recommends that the Belgian State be tolerant and allow Jehovah’s Witnesses in prison to be provided spiritual assistance by their chaplains in a similar way as recognized religions, on request and whenever it is needed.
Source: HRWF
