Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

The human rights group Liberty, representing 14-year-old Sarika Singh, successfully argued that Aberdare Girls’ School in South Wales breached race relations and equality laws by excluding her since November 2007 for wearing the kara (a plain single bangle widely accepted as a central tenet of the Sikh race and religion).

Anna Fairclough, Liberty’s Legal Officer representing the Singhs, said:

“This common sense judgment makes clear you must have a very good reason before interfering with someone’s religious freedom. Our great British traditions of religious tolerance and race equality have been rightly upheld today.”

Noting that the school has a role to play in developing principles of religious and racial tolerance in its pupils, Mr Justice Silber said in his judgment:

“…Without those principles being adopted in a school, it is difficult to see how a cohesive and tolerant multi-cultural society can be built in this country…I hope that the school will take all possible steps to ensure first that [she] can become quickly assimilated again within the school and second that there will be no bullying of her for racial or religious reasons.”

Singh, of mixed Welsh/Punjabi origin, has been raised in the Sikh faith and was the only Sikh at the Aberdare Girls’ School. The school’s uniform policy prohibits the wearing of any jewellery other than a wrist watch and plain ear studs. When the school noticed that Singh was wearing the kara, she was isolated for two months, including during meals and physical education classes despite her offer to remove or cover the Kara during exercise, before being excluded entirely in November 2007.

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128

Notes to Editors

1. Liberty filed the legal challenge in the High Court on 19 December 2007 which argues that the Governing Body of the Aberdare Girls’ School has indirectly discriminated on the grounds of race contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976; breached the duty to promote equality under s71 Race Relations Act 1976; indirectly discriminated on the ground of religion or belief contrary to the Equality Act 2006; and breached the Human Rights Act 1998 Article 8 (the right to a private life).

2. The Welsh Assembly published uniform guidelines for Welsh schools on 18 January 2008, after facing pressure from protestors calling for the guidelines to be introduced. Today’s judgment will be applied to the Aberdare Girls’ School but will not be binding on other schools.

3. The Kara (a small plain single bangle) is widely accepted as a central element or requirement of the Sikh race and religion and is specifically intended to be worn on the wrist as a reminder of the tenets of the faith.

4. Valleys Race Equality Council and UNITED SIKHS are supporting the Singh family.

5. In 2006, Liberty supported the religious freedom case of Nadia Eweida, a Christian British Airways check-in worker, who claimed she was forced to take unpaid leave after refusing to remove a small cross from her necklace.