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Samvetsfrihet versus rätten till abort

Jönsson, Hanna LU (2019) LAGF03 20191
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
Freedom of conscience and religion are both protected rights under the European Convention, though only the freedom of religion is a protected right under national Swedish law. The right to conscientious objection, on the other hand, is not a protected right according to national Swe-dish law. Conscientious objection is not completely unusual in abortion care, where individuals wish to not participate in such care for religious or conscientious reasons.
In the spring of 2017 a case was settled in the Swedish Labour Court, which concerned a midwife who was denied employment because she refused to participate in abortions, due to her religious beliefs. She believes that her freedom of conscience and religion in art. 9 ECHR have been... (More)
Freedom of conscience and religion are both protected rights under the European Convention, though only the freedom of religion is a protected right under national Swedish law. The right to conscientious objection, on the other hand, is not a protected right according to national Swe-dish law. Conscientious objection is not completely unusual in abortion care, where individuals wish to not participate in such care for religious or conscientious reasons.
In the spring of 2017 a case was settled in the Swedish Labour Court, which concerned a midwife who was denied employment because she refused to participate in abortions, due to her religious beliefs. She believes that her freedom of conscience and religion in art. 9 ECHR have been violated and that she is exposed to such discrimination as found in both art. 14 ECHR as in the Swedish discrimination law.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the conflict between the midwifery's right to conscien-tious objection and a woman’s right to a safe abortion. This conflict is looked at from a labour law perspective in order to be able to investigate to what degree an employer may make re-strictions in relation to his employees’ conscientious and religious freedom.
I come up with the conclusions that there is an opportunity for employers to restrict the freedom of conscience and religion of its employees, that a woman's right to abortion takes prec-edence over an individual's conscientious and religious freedom and finally that Sweden probably does not violate European law. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Samvets- och religionsfrihet är skyddade rättigheter enligt Europakonventionen. I svensk rätt däremot, skyddas enbart religionsfriheten. Åberopande av samvetsfrihet är inte helt ovanligt vid abortvård, då det finns vårdpersonal som av religiösa och samvetsbetänkliga skäl inte vill delta i sådan vård.
Våren 2017 avgjordes ett mål i Arbetsdomstolen som handlade om just en barnmorska som nekats anställning på grund av att hon vädrat delta i utförandet av aborter med hänvisning till sin religiösa tro. Hon menar att hennes samvets- och religionsfrihet i art. 9 EKMR har kränks och att hon utsatts för sådan diskriminering som stadgas i såväl art. 14 EKMR som i diskrimine-ringslagen.
Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa den konflikt som råder... (More)
Samvets- och religionsfrihet är skyddade rättigheter enligt Europakonventionen. I svensk rätt däremot, skyddas enbart religionsfriheten. Åberopande av samvetsfrihet är inte helt ovanligt vid abortvård, då det finns vårdpersonal som av religiösa och samvetsbetänkliga skäl inte vill delta i sådan vård.
Våren 2017 avgjordes ett mål i Arbetsdomstolen som handlade om just en barnmorska som nekats anställning på grund av att hon vädrat delta i utförandet av aborter med hänvisning till sin religiösa tro. Hon menar att hennes samvets- och religionsfrihet i art. 9 EKMR har kränks och att hon utsatts för sådan diskriminering som stadgas i såväl art. 14 EKMR som i diskrimine-ringslagen.
Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa den konflikt som råder mellan barnmorskans rätt till utö-vande av religion i form av åberopande av samvetsfrihet och kvinnans rätt till en säker abort. Denna konflikt ska belysas ur ett arbetsrättsligt perspektiv för att samtidigt, med utgångspunkt i Grimmark-fallet, EKMR och praxis från Europadomstolen, utreda om och, i så fall, till vilken grad en arbetsgivare kan göra inskränkningar i förhållande till sin personals samvets- och relig-ionsfrihet.
Arbetet redogör för gällande rätt, såväl i lag som i praxis och i analysen kommer jag fram till slutsatserna att det finns möjlighet för arbetsgivare att inskränka dess arbetstagares samvets- och religionsfrihet, att en kvinnas rätt till abort har företräde framför en individs samvets- och relig-ionsfrihet och slutligen att Sverige troligtvis inte bryter mot den europarättsliga regleringen. (Less)
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author
Jönsson, Hanna LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Mänskliga rättigheter, EKMR, abortvägran, samvetsfrihet, religionsfrihet
language
Swedish
id
8977444
date added to LUP
2019-09-16 14:28:00
date last changed
2019-09-16 14:28:00
@misc{8977444,
  abstract     = {{Freedom of conscience and religion are both protected rights under the European Convention, though only the freedom of religion is a protected right under national Swedish law. The right to conscientious objection, on the other hand, is not a protected right according to national Swe-dish law. Conscientious objection is not completely unusual in abortion care, where individuals wish to not participate in such care for religious or conscientious reasons.
In the spring of 2017 a case was settled in the Swedish Labour Court, which concerned a midwife who was denied employment because she refused to participate in abortions, due to her religious beliefs. She believes that her freedom of conscience and religion in art. 9 ECHR have been violated and that she is exposed to such discrimination as found in both art. 14 ECHR as in the Swedish discrimination law. 
The aim of the paper is to highlight the conflict between the midwifery's right to conscien-tious objection and a woman’s right to a safe abortion. This conflict is looked at from a labour law perspective in order to be able to investigate to what degree an employer may make re-strictions in relation to his employees’ conscientious and religious freedom.
I come up with the conclusions that there is an opportunity for employers to restrict the freedom of conscience and religion of its employees, that a woman's right to abortion takes prec-edence over an individual's conscientious and religious freedom and finally that Sweden probably does not violate European law.}},
  author       = {{Jönsson, Hanna}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Samvetsfrihet versus rätten till abort}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}