RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: COMPARATIVE LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The basic aim of this article is to disclose the manner in which the religious symbols in public sphere are treated in the international standards of human rights and in the legislation and the legal practice of the United States and European countries including Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author discovers that the approach to the problem by the traditionally emigrant nations (such as the United States and Canada) considerably differs from the approach that national European states have towards the issue. In Bosnia and Herzegovina these rights to expose the religious symbols in the public sphere is guaranteed by the law through the freedom of expressing ones faith in public and the rights of the churches and religious communities to disclosing religious symbols.