AMRITSAR: The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has ruled that France's ban on the wearing of "conspicuous" religious symbols in schools - introduced in a law adopted in March 2004 - violated a Sikh student's right to manifest his religion, protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
"The UNHRC has made our nine year wait for justice worthwhile, since the French law was passed against religious signs in public schools in 2004. The UNHRC has once again proved to be the beacon of light for the freedom of thought, conscience and religion by upholding that the Article 18 right under the ICCPR to manifest ones religion, cannot be overridden merely by pleading secularity without producing any evidence that the Sikh Turban would affect the right of other students or would affect order in the school," said Legal Director, United Sikhs, a Sikh NGO, Mejindarpal Kaur while talking to TOI over phone from Paris on Friday.
She said that in a decision that was sent out this week to the United Sikhs legal team, in relation to a complaint made by Bikramjit Singh in 2008, the Committee accepted that the wearing of a turban was regarded as a religious duty for a Sikh and was also tied in with his identity; and that France had not justified the prohibition on the wearing of the turban.
She further informed that the Committee accepted that the France was entitled to uphold the principle of secularism (laicite), a means by which a state party might seek to protect the religious freedom of all its population.
She informed that the Committee went on to express that France had "not furnished compelling evidence that by wearing his keski (small turban),Bikramjit would have posed a threat to the rights and freedoms of other pupils or to order at the school.Kaur informed that less than a year ago, the UNHRC had also concluded that France had violated the religious freedom of 76 year old Ranjit Singh when he was asked to remove his turban for his ID photograph. "A UN decision is still awaited for Shingara Singh, whose passport has not been renewed by France because he refused to remove his turban for his ID photograph" said she.
Quotes President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Paramjit Singh Sarna said Bikramjit Singh is an Indian national and it should have been the responsibility of the Indian government to protect his religious freedom abroad so that he and other Sikhs were not banned from wearing the turban in French public schools:
"Religion and politics are two wheels that balance civil society. If one wheel comes off, society ceases to be stable. Laicite or secularity is the oil that ensures that the two wheels keep moving. Sikhs do not see laicite as the enemy. We see it as our friend to help us be good citizens. United Sikh's France Director Shingara Singh.
"Our stand for the turban will not only benefit France but the whole world Gurdial Singh of the Turban Action Committee of France, who has been defending campaign relentlessly.
The Turban is not a sign of oppression. It's a practice of freedom," said Mejinderpal Kaur quoting Bikramjit Singh, who after being expelled from school, completed his education privately and is now a project engineer with an engineering firm in Paris.
Turban pride restores as Sikhs wins school turban ban case against France in UN
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Turban pride restores as Sikhs wins school turban ban case against France in UN
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Turban pride restores as Sikhs wins school turban ban case against France in UN
