An “offensive” art exhibition and Article 9: Asociación de Abogados Cristianos

The background

In Asociación de Abogados Cristianos v Spain [2023] ECHR no. 22604/18, the applicants complained about an exhibition by an artist called “A.A.” in 2015: Unearthed (Desenterrados), organised and subsidised by the Department for Culture of Pamplona City Council. One of the exhibits – Amen – showed a series of pictures of the artist posing naked next to the word “paedophilia” (pederastia) spelt out on the floor with consecrated Eucharistic hosts which, the artist explained in several tweets, he had taken from Masses that he had attended by putting them in his pocket after receiving them [4].

In November 2015, the applicant association lodged a criminal complaint against A.A. for an offence against freedom of conscience and religion under Articles 524 and 525 of the Spanish Criminal Code in relation to a breach of the right to freedom of religion under Article 16 § 1 of the Constitution. Continue reading