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issued by the Registrar of the Court ECHR 345 (2023) 11.12.2023 Forthcoming delivery of an advisory opinion in response to a request from the Belgian Conseil d'�tat The European Court of Human Rights will deliver an advisory opinion (no. P16-2023-001) on 14 December 2023 at 3 p.m. at a public hearing in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg. The request concerns proceedings pending in the Belgian Conseil d'�tat (Supreme Administrative Court), which is hearing an appeal by a security guard against a decision by the Minister of the Interior to withdraw his authorisation to work in that capacity, on the grounds that he is presumed to be close to or to belong to a religious movement, or to support its ideology (the "scientific" strand of Salafism). It concerns an interpretation of Article 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the Convention. This is the first request for an advisory opinion to have been submitted by one of the highest courts in Belgium. Protocol No. 16 to the Convention allows the highest courts and tribunals, as specified by the member States that have ratified it, to request advisory opinions on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the European Convention or the Protocols thereto. Advisory opinions are not binding (link). Background and domestic proceedings In order to be able to work as a security guard in Belgium, it is necessary to obtain an identification card issued by the Minister of the Interior or his or her representative. From 2010 onwards, S.B., a Belgian national, was employed by G4S, a private company specialising in security services. Among other duties he was assigned to guard buildings of the European Commission for which he had obtained special authorisation ("NATO clearance"). In that capacity he performed reception and patrol duties. S.B. applied at the end of 2018 to the company Securail, which was responsible for the security of the Belgian railway infrastructure and its users. He was employed as a security officer on an operator's post in the control room located at Brussels-Midi railway station. In order to perform his various tasks, S.B. holds an identification card which was issued by the Ministry of the Interior and is valid until 18 June 2024. In 2019 his former employer, the company G4S, offered him a side job assisting with the security of major events. That post required G4S to obtain for him a second identification card that was specific to the relevant type of work, so the company applied for one from the Ministry, which then sought information on S.B. from the State Security Service (Belgian civil intelligence). In 2020 the State Security Service informed the Ministry of the Interior that S.B. was known to the intelligence services on account of his contacts with several individuals associated with the scientific strand of Salafism, and sent the following assessment: "According to our assessment [the person concerned] is a supporter of this ideology. Supported by a majority of Salafists, the `scientific' branch considers preaching to be the main instrument for spreading its ideology, and eschews political intervention and violence as means of action. Most of the proselytising carried out within scientific Salafism therefore takes the form of teaching activities, the production of teaching aids about Islam or the dissemination of sermons." In 2021 the Security Conditions Investigation Board found that S.B. failed to satisfy the statutory profile for employment as a security guard and suggested that the Ministry of the Interior initiate a procedure for the purpose of refusing to issue him with a second identification card. The following month, the Ministry of the Interior informed S.B. of the Investigation Board's opinion. A few weeks later S.B. made submissions in his defence to the Ministry of the Interior, which summoned him to an interview, during which he stated, among other things, that he was a practising Muslim and that he sometimes "transmitted messages about Islam in a private context, for example to friends or family", copying and pasting the messages for them using text messaging or WhatsApp. He explained that he did "not claim allegiance to a movement or particular ideology, apart from Islam", that he had not "had problems with the police or other administrative authorities". He added that if he had "encountered persons with links to extremist or terrorist circles, it [had] been coincidental" and that he "considered, on the contrary, that nothing [could be] resolved through violence". On 15 October 2021 the Ministry of the Interior decided to withdraw the identification card that had been issued to Securail and refused to issue the new card requested by G4S. On 25 October 2021 S.B. lodged an application in the Belgian Conseil d'�tat seeking to have the Minister's decision set aside. The request for an advisory opinion In the course of the proceedings pending in the Belgian Conseil d'�tat on the application by S.B. for the setting-aside of the decision at issue, that court decided to request an advisory opinion and to put the following question to the Court: "Does the mere fact of being close to or belonging to a religious movement that, in view of its characteristics, is considered by the competent administrative authority to represent a threat to the country in the medium to long term, constitute a sufficient ground, in the light of Article 9 � 2 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the Convention, for taking an unfavourable measure against an individual, such as a ban on employment as a security guard?" This is the first request for an advisory opinion to have been submitted by one of the highest courts in Belgium. The procedure before the Court The request was accepted by the Grand Chamber panel on 10 May 2023. A Grand Chamber was formed on 22 May 2023 in accordance with Rule 24 � 2 (h) of the Rules of Court. The parties to the domestic proceedings were invited to submit written observations to the Court by 23 June 2023 (Article 3 of Protocol No. 16 and Rule 94 � 3). The observations were received in the Court's Registry within that time-limit and were transmitted to the Conseil d'�tat, which did not submit any comments on them (Rule 94 � 6). This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on www.echr.coe.int. To receive the Court's press releases, please subscribe here: www.echr.coe.int/RSS/en or follow us on Twitter @ECHR_CEDH. Press contacts [email protected] | tel.: +33 3 90 21 42 08 We would encourage journalists to send their enquiries via email. Inci Ertekin (tel.: + 33 3 90 21 55 30) Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel.: + 33 3 88 41 35 30) Denis Lambert (tel.: + 33 3 90 21 41 09) Neil Connolly (tel.: + 33 3 90 21 48 05) Jane Swift (tel.: + 33 3 88 41 29 04) The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. 3