Wearing a Beard is a Fundamental Human Right

The choice to have or not to have a beard is a fundamental human right, concluded the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Biržietis v. Lithuania.

The case concerned a total ban on wearing beards for prisoners, writes ECHR judge Anna Yudkivska on her Facebook page.

The beard can be a part of someone’s personality and individual identity, and therefore falls within the scope of a person’s private life, which is protected by Article 8 of the Convention, explains Yudkivska.

In the Court’s view, the interference with the complainant’s rights was not proportional. This was because the ban was an absolute one, without regard to the beard’s hygienic, aesthetic and other characteristics. In addition, the beard ban did not apply to other types of facial hair, such as mustaches or sideburns, and thus gave reason to deem it arbitrary.

In 2015, the US Supreme Court in Holt v. Hobbs came to the conclusion that a similar prison policy, which prohibited a Muslim prisoner from wearing his beard in accordance with his religious beliefs, was unconstitutional.