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Romanian religion law in European human rights court

January 05, 2007
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Bucharest (dpa) - A Romanian rights group is to appeal the country's new law on religious freedom to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, news agency Mediafax reported Friday.

The Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience organization had previously led protests against a section of the legislation which outlaws the "disparaging" of religions or the public offending of religious symbols.

The law on religious freedom and the regime of religious cults was prompted by petitioning from the Muslim community in Romania and promulgated by President Traian Basescu on December 27.


Sucevita Monastery

Critics of the law, among them nine Romanian human rights groups, argue that it could be interpreted to cover cultural artefacts such as rock songs or works of Western literature and philosophy such as The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Criticism has also come from the United States and from the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. A number of Protestant faith- based groups have meanwhile argued that the new law's stipulations for state recognition of a religion apart from the Romanian Orthodox Church are too restrictive.

Under the new law the number of followers of a religion must be greater than 0.1 per cent of the Romanian population (currently equating to around 22,000 people) in order for it to gain official state recognition.

Around 87 per cent of Romanians belong to the Romanian Orthodox faith. // © 2006 DPA

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