Freedom of conscience and religion in Europe

More about the research objective

The debate on the presence of religious symbols in public spaces often provokes strong emotions, reflecting the importance of fundamental values in European culture and civilisation. The debate has grown in recent years and proper regulation is undoubtedly required, backed up by legal arguments. To research this topic, we have gathered experts on freedom of conscience and religion from the following countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The research team's work has produced two significant results. It first examined the legal aspects of the display of religious symbols in public places in seven Central European countries, for the first time in an international comparative study. Secondly, it has drawn valuable conclusions and de lege ferenda proposals to defend religious freedom. Religious symbols are generally not prohibited in public places and their use often goes beyond the religious dimension. However, it turned out that in Central European countries, the problems related to the protection of religious freedom (including the display of religious symbols in public places) are not to be found in the legislation itself, but in its implementation. One of the main results of the research group is the publication “Religious Symbols in Public Places – Analysis of selected Central European countries".

Professors in the research group

group leader

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Book

The publishing house's mainly English-language books and journals help to build dialogue between the national scientific communities of the Central European region, and enable high quality scientific output to be disseminated outside the region.

Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere
Paweł Sobczyk

Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere: Analysis on Certain Central European Countries

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Articles

Freedom of Conscience and Religion in Private Schools

Freedom of Conscience and COVID-19 Vaccination

Legal Regulation of Religious Clothing in the Public Sphere in the Czech Republic in Light of the Case of a Muslim Student versus a Secondary School

Necessity of Protecting Religious Feelings under Criminal Law in a Democratic State

Religious Education in the Public Sphere in Slovenia

Our conferences

The Central European Professors' Network, composed of four research groups, started its activities on 1 January 2021 to bring together seven Central European countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech [...]

Other results

Pawel Sobczyk: Protect religious freedom

Lóránt Csink: Freedom of conscience and religion in pandemic times

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