The protection of the right to freedom of religion is fundamental to ensure the protection of human dignity both at an individual and collective level. An intrinsic consequence of this right consists in assuring the availability of places of worship, including their Safety and Security.

Although there is a need to ensure that places of worship are secure, the implementation of security systems and procedures may result in the violations of individuals’ right to privacy in relation to their religious beliefs and behaviours, which is also a fundamental human right.

Against this background, is crucial to ensure the security of places of worship as well as the protection of the right to privacy in order to avoid discrimination and protect believers’ rights.

There is not a dedicated legal framework to ensure the safety and security of places of worship. Hence, the available legal corpus focuses on public buildings, premises subject to natural hazards (such as earthquakes) as well as to heritage protection.

Importantly, protecting places of worship through security and surveillance systems which have an impact on personal data. Therefore, the European and national legal frameworks related to the protection of privacy and governance, and to the collection, storage and processing of personal data must be applied.

As a result, the application of these different legal frameworks is complex and requires legal and technical knowledge among religious communities, especially among the managers of the place of worship.

The autonomy of religious bodies is part of the right to freedom of religion. As part of this right, religious communities should be free from arbitrary State intervention, which especially cannot determine the legitimacy and the expression of particular religious beliefs.

Furthermore, the autonomy is a demand from religious communities which want to feel involved and included in decision processes related to the protection of places of worship, in order to preserve the specificity of religious places and their sacramental character. It is also considered a factor of trust among community members.

The deployment of security and surveillance systems may involve an intrusion into individual and collective religious beliefs and behaviours – elements that are regulated by with the European legal frameworks on privacy and protection of personal data. At the same time, religious bodies must respect the national laws, assuring the security and safety of the citizens.

The Working Groups of religious experts of the SHRINEs project thus consider that violations of believers’ privacy constitute one of the most important risks linked to the use of security devices. Therefore, it is needed to take into account both security and privacy guarantees when discussing for the protection of places of worship.

The various legal frameworks currently applicable to the protection of religious sites can lead to different applications and, consequently, different effects of the same legislation. It appears from the SHRINEs Working Group’s assessment that a dedicated legal framework is the best solution to address this problem.

By guaranteeing the possibility of adapting safety and security standards, a dedicated legal framework could take into account the internal regulations and ethical and legal values of the religious community when planning the installation of systems. This would
take into account the peculiarities of each religion and the specificities of different places of worship.