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Loste v. Francia, No. 59227/12, ECtHR (5th Section), 3 November 2022

Date
03/11/2022
Type Judgment
Case number 59227/12

Abstract

Exposure of the child to religious proselytism by the foster family. Violation of religious freedom.

Normative references

Art. 9 ECHR
Art. 3 ECHR

Ruling

The competent national authorities responsible for child custody infringe the positive obligations linked to the right to religious freedom when they do not take all the measures necessary to ensure that the foster family complies with the religious neutrality clause under which it has undertaken to respect the religious views of the child and his or her family of origin. 
In the present case, the competent French authorities had allowed the child, who came from a family of Muslim religion, to be exposed to proselytism by the foster spouses, members of Jehovah's Witnesses, by whom, moreover, she had been sexually abused.