Banning unstunned slaughter of animals violates the rights of Muslim minorities, argues EU General Advocate
Banning the ritual slaughter of animals that are not first stunned is unlawful, the EU Advocate General Gerard Hogan proposed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
The opinion, published on September 10 comes after a decree in Belgium last year that prohibits the slaughtering of animals without first stunning them, a practice followed mostly by Muslim and Jewish communities in the Flemish Region. Seeing their religious freedom in danger, various Muslim and Jewish associations challenged the decree seeking its total or partial annulment. Belgium’s Constitutional Court referred the case to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on whether such a ban is permissible under EU law.
The EU Advocate General’s argument released this week considers the guarantees of religious liberty and freedom contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
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