INTRODUCTION

A TOPIC THAT DIVIDES OPINIONS AND COMMUNITIES

The subject of this contribution is a limited one, but one that is closely linked to very topical issues, as I will seek to demonstrate. It must however be placed in the wider context of contemporary plural societies, where debates on what are considered fundamental values and the way in which respect for those values may be ensured are increasingly frequent giving rise to disputes between individuals and/or communities that are oft en extremely difficult to resolve. These debates revolve around the question of how to accommodate diversity in a way that is compatible with democracy and the protection of fundamental rights and liberties for all. There is no shortage of illustrations ranging from inheritance rights that are discriminatory toward certain relatives, especially women, through marriage practices stemming from patriarchal values, to restrictive dress codes, to mention but a few.

In Europe in particular, the tensions that accompany these debates are oft en the direct or indirect consequence of the presence of recently established communities within a country, i.e. migrant communities, although they are not exclusively the result of such cross-border movements. Secularisation, as well as the individualisation of lifestyles in contemporary society, likewise give rise to new tensions between values that are perceived or experienced as clashing. One need think only of recent debates in France about the legalisation of gay marriage and in Italy about the display of the crucifix in state schools. Each of these cases has in its own way revealed a profound division within public opinion as regards rights that are deemed essential to the smooth functioning of a democratic society, while having nothing to do with the arrival of new communities. In France, it was the right to choose one's partner and the protection of privacy that were at issue, and in Italy, the right of parents to claim for their children the protection of the freedom not to believe.