Brussels, Sep 23, 2004
By Geoff Meade
Europe editor
PA News

The French government ban on wearing headscarves at school as a religious symbol breaches international human rights rules, it was claimed today.

Teachers, pupils, psychiatrist and human rights activists taking part in a Brussels seminar said the ban had to be reversed and prevented from being adopted in other European Union countries.

The European Parliament gathering, hosted by Green Party MEPs Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas and the UK-based Assembly for the Protection of Hijab, backed the right to wear “conspicuous” religious symbols.

Representatives of London’s Sikh Community and the Commission of the Bishop’s Conferences of the European Community also took part.

London Green MEP Jean Lambert, a member of the European Parliament’s Human Rights and Civil Liberties Committees, said:

“Banning the wearing of religious symbols is a clear human rights violation. This seminar was organised so as to keep the Hijab ban on the Parliament’s agenda and to push for MEPs to vote in support of protecting universal human rights throughout the EU.”

South East Green MEP Caroline Lucas described the French ban as “a clear affront to freedom of religion and freedom of expression.”

She went on: “This seminar has brought together religious communities and policy-makers from across the EU and the political spectrum to discuss ways of preventing the French ban from spreading to other EU states.

“Preventing the spread of populist Islamophobia in the EU has never been more urgent. Just this week an Italian MEP condemned traditional Islamic dress as ‘a symbol of death’ – and that’s offensive and unacceptable.”

The seminar drew up a draft written declaration which could be tabled in the European Parliament before the end of the year, calling on the French government to reconsider its ban and urging all EU countries to guarantee religious freedom in schools and educational establishments.