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GREECE
The Constitution establishes the Greek Orthodox Church, to which 95% of the population nominally belong, as the prevailing religion, but prohibits discrimination against members of other religions.
When people of a common faith want formally to establish a new religion, they constitute a religious association and apply to the Greek government for a license to establish a place of worship. The Greek Constitution and civil law require that the religion has no secret dogmas or practises. Officially, this is the only barrier to acceptance as a religion.
The Greek Orthodox Church exerts considerable influence through the Ministry of Education and Religion. Religious training is mandatory for Greek Orthodox pupils – pupils not of the Greek Orthodox Church may be excused, though it has been alleged that some pupils have been forced to attend and that books of religious instruction denigrate, for example, the religion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Ironically, the Constitution forbids proselytizing. The Jehovah’s Witnesses in particular have experienced years of persecution owing to their practise of proselytizing and their refusal to take part in military service. It was calculated by Amnesty International in a 1993 report that between 1938 and 1992, Witnesses had collectively spent more than 5,000 years in military and civil prisons in Greece.
According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the situation has begun to improve slowly. They are now treated as a “known religion” for employment purposes by the Ministry of Education. This may be due in part to a number of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses, finding Greece in violation of the religious freedom clause of the European Convention on Human Rights. In one case in 1991, the Greek Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of Witnesses for illegally operating a House of Prayer. The European Court overruled, finding that the Greek government’s action violated Article 9 of the Convention.
A 1996 report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) also criticized the Greek government for religious discrimination. The IHF is a nongovernmental organisation that monitors compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act – also known as the Helsinki Accords – mentioned in the first chapter. The IHF stated that “... religious communities experience discrimination in various forms, particularly Catholics, Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientologists; defamatory reporting significantly increased in 1995 against Scientologists.”
The IHF also noted that “In July 1995, the European Commission of Human Rights declared the privileged status of the Greek Orthodox Church to be undemocratic and it was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in September 1996. However, Greek authorities have so far taken no steps towards providing more equal treatment of religious communities.”
Article 13 of the Greek Constitution states that:
“1. Freedom of religious conscience is inviolable. The enjoyment of civil rights and liberties does not depend on the individual’s religious beliefs.
“2. All known religions shall be free and their rites of worship shall be performed unhindered and under the protection of the law. The practise of rites of worship is not allowed to offend public order or the good usages. Proselytism is prohibited.
“3. The Ministers of all known religions shall be subject to the same supervision by the State and to the same obligations toward it as those of the prevailing religion.
“4. No person shall be exempt from discharging his obligations to the State or may refuse to comply with the laws by reason of his religious convictions.”
Continued...
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