Louvain-la-Neuve: Expert meeting CDL(COE)/ODIHR(OSCE) Guidelines on the legal personality of religious or belief communities (25-26 giugno 2015)

EXPERT MEETING CDL(COE)/ODIHR(OSCE)
GUIDELINES ON THE LEGAL PERSONALITY OF RELIGIOUS OR BELIEF COMMUNITIES

The European Commission for Democracy through Law – Venice Commission (CDL) – and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) have been providing international legislative support and assistance to many States in drafting laws on freedom of religion or belief.
From these experiences, both institutions drafted together the Guidelines for Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief in 2004. From 2004 to 2014, the international standards on freedom of religion or belief have been transformed, mainly through the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the commitments of the OSCE.
Moreover, many new reports on legislative support to draftlaws have been issued.
As a new step in this process, new Guidelines were adopted 2014. They focus on collective issues in religious or belief communities and, as they gather coherently and clearly all international standards in this regard, they constitute an essential tool for the legislators and for any person interested in the legal protection of freedom of religion or belief.
Both Guidelines of 2004 and 2014 and the CDL(CoE)/ODIHR(OSCE) Reports on national legislative drafts help the implementation of human rights and religious freedom in national legislations and take pa r t in the development of International standards on FORB.
The Conference aims to analyse these new avenues and to discuss the procedural and substantial specificities of CDL(CoE)/ ODIHR(OSCE) international legislative support, its influence on national legislations in OSCE countries, on international law and on the case law of the ECtHR.

(Il programma)