The Right to Freedom of Religion in the Italian Experience of Secularism

Italian secularism measures religious precepts in respect to the Italian Constitution, a Charter that shows a favourable attitude towards religious practices. The present paper focuses on the exhibition of religious symbols in public buildings as schools, courts and prisons, on the concealment of female faces by a veil, and on the wearing of weapons on religious grounds. The Italian Consiglio di Stato has stated that the need to respect religious freedom does not include the right to live in a sterile environment. In addition, the crucifix and the female veil are not characterized as purely “religious symbols” because they derive from customary practices and because their meaning transcends religion and expresses a rooted cultural heritage. In this respect, the Italian legal order is not categorically tolerant nor unconditionally intolerant towards these symbols but relies on case-by-case analysis of the circumstances that allow the best possible balance between religious freedom, private autonomy, pluralism, equality, human dignity, and the social function of religion. Along the same line, the European Court of Human Rights has mainly focused on the existence of subtle or explicit forms of religious indoctrination in order to assess whether, in a given case, public authorities have impaired individual rights to religious freedom.