The European Court of Human Rights [official website] (ECHR) issued a ruling [judgment, in French] Tuesday refusing to exempt two Swiss Muslim students from compulsory mixed sex swimming lessons for religious reasons. The court explained [press release, PDF] that the students’ right to manifest their religion had been interfered with by the school’s requirement that they take mixed swimming lessons. However, the court decided that the interference served a legitimate purpose: “protection of foreign pupils from any form of social exclusion.” The court decided that the role that schools play in integrating foreign students into their new social environment outweighed the interference with foreign students’ religious freedoms.

The balance of religious freedoms and social cohesion has been a contentious issue in Europe, and the battle has played itself out in swimming waters. In September a French court upheld [JURIST report] a local ban on full-body “burkini” swimsuits. In August the French Council of State [official website, French] overturned [JURIST report] a ban on burkinis in the city of Cannes. Burkini bans were part of the French response to the killing of 84 people in July by a crazed truck driver on Bastille Day.