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Erica Howard
In this article, I argue that there is no need to provide for reasonable accommodation of religion or belief or of any other discrimination grounds in EU law, because the justification test for (indirect) discrimination already includes a duty to do so. The article starts with an overview of existing reasonable accommodation duties to demonstrate how such a duty can be laid down in law. Then the concept of indirect discrimination in EU law is examined in detail and it is argued that the test for objective justification includes a consideration whether religious or other practices can be accommodated. Support for this can be found in case law from the Member States and from the European Court of Human Rights. There is thus no need to extend the duty of reasonable accommodation to other grounds of discrimination. The article will specifically focus on the duty in relation to religion and belief, but will show that this duty could be extended to all grounds of discrimination covered by legislation. The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Eweida v United Kingdom will form part of the analysis.
