The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has overturned decisions by a tribunal and the UK Court of Appeal and upheld the claim of Nadia Eweida that her rights had been violated under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights when her employer, British Airways, refused to allow her to wear her cross in plain sight at work.
However, the European judges ruled that the rights of three other Christians, who brought cases against the government for not protecting their rights, had not been violated by their employers.
The other cases involved nurse Shirley Chaplin, whose employer also stopped her wearing necklaces with a cross, Gary McFarlane, a marriage counsellor fired after saying he might object to giving sex therapy advice to gay couples and registrar Lillian Ladele, who was disciplined after she refused to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies.
Miss Eweida, from south-west London, was sent home from work in September 2006 for displaying a small silver cross on a chain around her neck, which she wore as a personal expression of her faith.
She returned to work in customer services at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 in February 2007, after BA changed its uniform policy on visible items of jewellery.
At the ECHR, Miss Eweida argued BA’s action contravened articles nine and fourteen of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibit religious discrimination and allow “freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. However lawyers acting for the Government, which contested the claim, argued that her rights were only protected in private.
Despite their arguments, the ECHR concluded that that, in circumstances such as these, where there is no evidence of any real encroachment on the interests of others, the domestic authorities failed sufficiently to protect the first applicant’s right to manifest her religion. However, they decided against examining Miss Eweida’s complaint under article fourteen.