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Muslims in Belgium will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the country’s ban on halal animal slaughter (ECtHR).
“The Belgian Muslim Executive and the Coordination Council of Islamic Institutions of Belgium will challenge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg the ban imposed by the Flemish and Walloon government on the ritual slaughter,” the two organizations wrote in a press statement.
The move follows the approval of a ban on ritual slaughtering by the Belgian Constitutional Court in October.
In the Wallonia and Flanders regions of the country, new legislation on animal protection and welfare went into effect in 2019.
By requiring butchers to stun animals before cutting them, the law outlawed traditional Muslim and Jewish rites of slaughter.
The bill was challenged by Muslim and Jewish organizations, who argued that the ban on ritual slaughter violated their right to freedom of religion, but their appeal was dismissed by the Belgian Supreme Court.
The Muslim community has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
“After all, the rule of law must not surrender to the political and social pressure of the growing populist movements that fight a symbolic battle against vulnerable minorities across Europe,” the organizations wrote.
“Current religious slaughter techniques constitute a full-fledged alternative to stunning animals and are fully compatible with public health, food safety and animal welfare requirements,” the associations explained.
“The stunning obligation, on the other hand, is only an emotional symbolic measure, which simply serves, to the detriment of religious minorities, to appease the conscience of the average consumer and to obscure the reality that animals are raised as objects of consumption in industrial mega-stalls,” they added.
