EU countries can ban ritual slaughter to promote animal welfare: Court rules
Dec 18, 2020
Brussels [Belgium], December 18 : The European Union's highest court has ruled that the member countries can ban the practice of ritual slaughter to promote animal welfare, without defying the rights of religious groups.
According to a report by POLITICO, the decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) followed a legal challenge by Jewish and Muslim associations to a Flemish government prohibition on the killing of animals without prior non-lethal (also called reversible) stunning in 2017.
Earlier, an advocate general in the EU court had urged for the reversal of the ban as it "did not comply with EU law, which allows an exemption to animal welfare obligations for religious reasons".
However, the EU court said on Thursday that the EU's animal slaughter regulation "does not preclude member states from imposing an obligation to stun animals prior to killing which also applies in the case of slaughter prescribed by religious rites," providing that this does not contravene the EU's charter of fundamental human rights, POLITICO said.
While the charter upheld the right to "manifest" religious practices, the judgement said that this needs to be "balanced against the capacity of reversible stunning to meet an EU "objective of general interest," namely animal welfare".
The court has also said that the proposed ban will not impact the movement of kosher and halal meat produced elsewhere.
Condemning the ruling, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has termed the decision as "a heavy blow to Jewish life in Europe".
"The right to practice our faith and customs ... has been severely undermined by this decision," Kantor was quoted as saying by POLITICO.
"We plan to pursue every legal recourse to right this wrong," said Yohan Benizri, the President of the Belgian Federation of Jewish Organisations, as per POLITICO.
