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Religious Civil & Discrimination Law
(Religious Harassment )
Following EU Council Directive 2000/78/EC which adopted a formal definition of Harassment for Discrimination purposes the Government decided to adopt a modified form of the definition for all claims of Harassment under Discrimination law which is set out in s22 of The Equality Act 2010
Reg 5 of the The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (now repealed) defined Harassment as follows
“a person ("A") subjects another person ("B") to harassment
where, on grounds of religion or belief, A engages in unwanted conduct which has
the purpose or effect of -
(a)
violating B's dignity;
or
(b)
creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading,
humiliating or offensive environment for B.
(2)
Conduct shall be regarded as having the effect specified in paragraph (1)(a) or
(b) only if, having regard to all the circumstances, including in particular the
perception of B, it should reasonably be considered as having that
effect.”
How these regulations will work in practice remains to be seen. In s47 of the Equality Bill the Government proposed to extend this definition of Harassment to allow claims outside of the workplace but was defeated in the House of Lords. Fears were expressed that the definition was widely drafted and, though that might be acceptable in the workplace, it was dangerously wide for general use. For example it would be possible that someone writing or publishing a book or Newspaper which a member of a Religious Group considered violated their dignity could be sued for Harassment.
The Government
accepted these concerns and also the point that the
Protection from Harassment Act
1997 was the appropriate means of
dealing with harassment outside the workplace. The 1997 Act
is often referred to as the
"stalkers law" but is now widely used to deal with all types of harassment not
merely stalking. For example it has been used to sue a Newspaper
Esther Thomas - v - News Group Newspapers [2001] EWCA Civ 1233
over two articles it
published which caused harassment.
The Act
therefore can be used as a means of dealing with all forms of
religious Harassment. For further discussion on
the subject of Harassment generally and the possible use of The Protection from
Harassment Act 1997 in cases involving Religious Harassment please go to my
other Web site www.HarassmentLaw.co.uk.
Legal Advice and Representation, Training
and Education
Contact NEIL ADDISON at
Religion Law