Empathy and Human Rights: the Case of Religious Dress

There has been a huge growth in the study of the concept of empathy—taking the perspective of others—across academic disciplines in recent decades. However, whilst a number of scholars and philosophers have argued that empathy might provide some theoretical underpinning for human rights norms, there has been little exploration as to how empathy might actually be used in the practical adjudication of human rights claims. This article seeks to address this gap. By using as a case study the European Court of Human Rights case law on Article 9 on religious dress and symbols, the authors explore how the concept of empathy might improve the Court’s adjudication on this issue via a process of attempting to understand and give weight to the profound commitment that religious dress/symbols may represent to people of faith.