A legal shift regarding the slaughter of animals on religious grounds is underway across Europe, one that could reshape the future of halal meat production.
While EU law still contains a derogation for ritual slaughter, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2020 that member states may require reversible pre-stunning in the name of animal welfare. Then, in February 2024, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the Belgian regional bans and accepted animal welfare as part of “public morality” that can justify limits on religious manifestation.
While those rulings did not impose a continent-wide ban, taken together, they have lowered the legal risk for countries that want one, shifting the debate from pure law to politics.
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Muhammad Ali Bandial