Guide On Article 6 Of The European Convention On Human Rights
Adrienne Borgman
Importantly, this right protects a wide range of non-religious beliefs including atheism, agnosticism, veganism and pacifism. For a belief to be protected under this article, it must be serious, concern important aspects of human life or behaviour, be sincerely held, and be worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Public authorities cannot interfere with your right to hold or change your beliefs, but there are some situations in which public authorities can interfere with your right to manifest or show your thoughts, belief and religion. This is only allowed where the authority can show that its action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to protect:
guide on article 6 of the european convention on human rights
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1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching practice and observance.
(Case summary taken from Human rights, human lives: a guide to the Human Rights Act for public authorities. Download the publication for more examples and legal case studies that show how human rights work in practice.)
The mechanism applies to all member States of the Organization of American States (OAS), albeit with variations. While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will deal with petitions related to human rights violations from all member States of the OAS, the procedure and the legal framework depend on what Inter-American treaties a State is party to.
A list of member States of the OAS is available at _states/default.asp.
A petition can only be lodged after domestic remedies have been exhausted, and has to be lodged within six months after the final judgment. In addition, the subject of the petition or communication should not be pending in another international settlement procedure.
In addition, the petition has to be filed within the time limit of six months after exhaustion of domestic remedies. If for some reason domestic remedies cannot be exhausted, because they are unreasonably prolonged or ineffective, then this should be stated in the petition.
Upon receipt of a petition by the Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Secretariat will be responsible for the initial processing of the petition, especially checking if it meets the requirements of article 28 of the Rules of Procedure. Should documentation be missing, the Secretariat will contact the person or NGO that submitted the petition and request additional information.
The Secretariat will also register the petition and acknowledge receipt.
Once all requirements are met, the petition will be forwarded to the Inter-American Commission. In serious or urgent cases, the Secretariat will notify the Inter-American Commission immediately.
During the admissibility procedure, the relevant parts of the petition will be forwarded to the State concerned for comments. If the person submitting the petition wants his or her identity be withheld, it will not be transmitted to the State. However, it is usually not possible for the identity of victims of alleged human rights violations to be withheld.
According to article 30 of the Rules of Procedure, the State should respond within two months of the transmission of the request by the Secretariat. This can be extended, but not beyond three months counted from the date of the initial request.
Prior to a regular session of the Inter-American Commission, a Working Group on Admissibility will meet and make recommendations as to the admissibility of petitions. A decision on admissibility will then be made by the Inter-American Commission. Any decision on admissibility or inadmissibility is public and will be included in the Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission. Reports on admissibility or inadmissibility can also be found at _reports.asp.
Following a decision on admissibility, the Inter-American Commission will proceed to a decision on the merits of the case. First, the petitioners will be given two months to submit additional information to the Inter-American Commission. The relevant parts of these submissions will be transmitted to the State concerned, who will also be given two months to respond.
Prior to a decision on the merits of the case, the Inter-American Commission will then set a time period for the parties to express whether they are interested in initiating the friendly settlement procedure according to article 41 of the Rules of Procedure.
Finally, the Inter-American Commission will deliberate in private on the decision on the merits. If the Inter-American Commission does come to the conclusion that there was no violation of the relevant human rights treaty, the report will say so and will be published with the Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission.
If the Inter-American Commission finds a violation of human rights, it will prepare a preliminary report which includes recommendation to the State concerned, which will be submitted to the State in question with a deadline for reporting on the measures taken to comply with the recommendations. At that time, the report will not yet be published, and the State concerned is also not authorised to publish the report.
The petitioner will be notified of the report and that it has been transmitted to the State concerned.
If within three months after transmission of the preliminary report to the State concerned the matter has not been resolved, the Inter-American Commission may issue a final report which includes the opinion of the Commission and final conclusions and recommendations. The final report will again be transmitted to the parties concerned, with a deadline for submitting information as to the compliance with the recommendations.
After the expiration of the deadline, the Inter-American Commission will decide whether or not to publish the final report, and whether to include it in the Commission's Annual Report. Published final reports can be found at
The above procedure applies to all member States of the Organization of American States, whether or not they have ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, and whether or not they have accepted the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court. However, the legal reference might be different, depending on whether or not a State is party to the American Convention or not. This should be kept in mind when submitting a petition.
The following only applies to States Party to the American Convention on Human Rights that have accepted the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights according to article 62 of the Convention.
Following the adoption of a preliminary report on the merits by the Inter-American Commission, the original petitioner will be notified about the decision, and will be given one month to present his or her position as to whether the case should be submitted to the Inter-American Court.
A case can be brought to the Inter-American Court either by the Inter-American Commission, or by the State concerned. The Rules and Procedure of the Inter-American Court are available at _eng.cfm. From the petitioner's point of view, it is likely that the case will be led by the Inter-American Commission.
The Inter-American human rights system has been used in cases of conscientious objection to military service, but with a mixed outcome. The first case of a conscientious objector filed with the Inter-American Commission was the case of Colombian conscientious objector Luis Gabriel Caldas Len in 1995. However, this case was finally archived in 2010, without a decision on the case (see ).
In 1999, a group of Chilean conscientious objector filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission, alleging a violation of their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In its opinion, the Inter-American Commission denied that a right to conscientious objection existed under the American Convention on Human Rights (see Report No 43/05). In 2004, a case was filed by the Ombudsman of Bolivia concerning a conscientious objector from Bolivia. This case ended in 2005 with a friendly settlement (see Report No 97/05).
Since the negative decision of 2005 in the case from Chile, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have moved forward with the interpretation of the equivalent articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights respectively, so it is possible that the Inter-American Commission too could change its interpretation of the American Convention, if presented with a good case. However, we advise anyone wanting to engage in this to contact the authors of this publication.
Article 106 of the Charter of the Organization of American States establishes "an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, whose principal function shall be to promote the observance and protection of human rights and to serve as a consultative organ of the Organization in these matters".
Article 12 of the American Convention protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience and of religion. This right includes freedom to maintain or to change one's religion or beliefs, and freedom to profess or disseminate one's religion or beliefs, either individually or together with others, in public or in private.
2. No one shall be subject to restrictions that might impair his freedom to maintain or to change his religion or beliefs.
3. Freedom to manifest one's religion and beliefs may be subject only to the limitations prescribed by law that are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals, or the rights or freedoms of others.
Several recent decisions by international courts have also confirmed that the occupying power is obliged to comply with its human rights obligations in occupied territories and in respect of people placed under its effective control as a result of occupation or detention. These decisions thus confirm that the application of international humanitarian law is complementary to the conventions on human rights in these situations. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has notably passed judgments on violations of the European Convention committed by European countries in relation to their intervention in Iraq and military occupation of the country (infra Jurisprudence).
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