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Europe

Top EU human rights court upholds bans on halal, kosher slaughter in Belgium

2024-02-15

[IsraelTimes] The bans in Belgium on the slaughter of animals without stunning neither interfere with freedom of religion nor constitute discrimination, the European Court of Human Rights rules.

The ruling Tuesday by the tribunal in Strasbourg, La Belle France, is on a petition filed by Moslem groups against the bans introduced in 2019 in two out of three Belgian regions. The ruling is final as the Strasbourg court is the highest instance with jurisdiction to review the bans.

Jewish and Moslem groups in Belgium oppose the bans, which they view as an unreasonable infringement on religious freedoms. The bans cite the widespread view that slaughter without stunning is cruel to animals. Advocates of Jewish slaughter, or shechita, argue that when performed correctly, that technique does not result in excessive suffering for animals. Defenders of the Moslem variant, d’biha, argue the same.

Many observant Jews and Moslems do not consume meat that isn’t kosher or halal, respectively. For meat to be labeled as such, the animals from which it is produced must be healthy and conscious when their necks are cut.

Multiple countries in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and beyond have laws limiting or outlawing slaughter without stunning.

"The implied determination of the distorted verdict is that the rights of these citizens to freedom of religion and worship are even less than that of animals," says Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association.

He warns that the restrictions on Jews practicing their faith, as he defines them, will lead to "serious damage to the fabric of life throughout the continent."

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, calls the ruling "a black day for Europe," adding that "the Jewish and Moslem communities of Europa
Europa

...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
will continue to fight for religious freedoms and equality," but "that task is now made all the harder.

More from the Times of Israel at 2:55 p.m. ET:

The bans added Belgium to a number of EU countries where ritual slaughter is illegal, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia. In 2011, the Netherlands briefly joined the list, but the Dutch Senate reversed the ban in 2012, citing freedom of worship. Poland also outlawed ritual slaughter in 2013, but has since scaled back the ban to include only meat for export.

Advocates of the customs say that in addition to being required under religious law, they result in no greater suffering to animals than mechanized slaughter methods with higher malfunction rates and less attention to individual animals.

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