Helsinki Commission To Investigate the French Turban Ban On The Recommendation
of UNITED SIKHS
Paris, France – UNITED SIKHS is pleased to announce that the United States
Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency that monitors and encourages
the implementation of Helsinki Provisions, has urged the French Government to
“rethink” its law which bans the wearing of ostensible religious signs to public
schools and “make reasonable accommodations” for students who wear ostensible
religious signs. Earlier this year, the French Government passed a law that bans
the wearing of ostensible religious signs to public schools and requires a
school to give the student a hearing before expelling him for wearing the
religious signs.
Commenting on the tragic expulsion of French Sikh schoolchildren from their
schools for trying to follow the edicts of their religion, a fundamental and
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-news/990-helsinki-commission-to-investigate-turban-ban.html
universal human right, Chairman Smith of the Helsinki Commission stated,
“Expelling children is not the answer. Students attending public schools should
not have to sacrifice their religious beliefs to enjoy the same educational
opportunities as their follow classmates.”
Over the last several months, UNITED SIKHS has met on several occasions with
representatives of the Helsinki Commission and has provided continuous updates
on the ban of religious articles of faith involving the Sikh community in
France. UNITED SIKHS is encouraged with the bold stand the Helsinki Commission
has made in light of seventeen Sikh students who were excluded from French
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=990
schools for wearing turbans as required by the Sikh faith. Currently, UNITED
SIKHS is working with attorneys to take legal action on behalf of those
seventeen Sikh school children who were excluded from public schools because
they refused to remove their turbans.
In September, three Sikh students, Jasvir Singh, Bikramjit Singh and Ranjit
Singh, were expelled from attending school without a hearing being held. In
October, the three Sikh students were forced to go to an Administrative Tribunal
to decide if they would be re-admitted or stay expelled from the Louise Michel
School in Bobigny, a suburb of Paris.
The French Tribunal, upon hearing the case of the Sikh schoolchildren, ordered
the school to form a disciplinary committee to decide if it will admit or expel
the three French Sikh schoolboys, ending a six-week stalemate since schools
reopened in September. This decision will be made on November 5th. The judge
explained that by not giving the schoolboys a right to a disciplinary hearing,
the school had committed a “grave and serious attack” on the rights of the Sikh
schoolboys.
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