A legal case about crucifixes in Italian schools is under appeal at the European Court of Human Rights. If such crucifixes are banned it would have far reaching implications for the way European states deal with the issue of religious symbols in schools. In Lautsi v. Italy in 2009, the court ruled unanimously that crucifixes in Italian public school classes are contrary to parents’ right to educate their children in line with their convictions and to children’s right to freedom of religion (art. 2 of the 1st Protocol, and art. 9 of the ECHR).
Throughout Europe, the issue of whether wearing religious symbols in school should be allowed is dealt with in different ways. The position has been most clearly defined in France where the law has long stipulated that ‘the wearing of symbols or garments with which students conspicuously demonstrate their adherence to a religion is forbidden in state primary and lower and upper secondary schools’. Similar rules apply in other areas involving the state, but the ban does not apply in the street or elsewhere. Other states tend to be less proscriptive.