The State Funding of ‘Non-Religions’ in Belgium

Since 1993, the Belgian Constitution has the particularity to provide the State funding of non-confessional organisations, next to the funding of religions that already exists since the independence of Belgium (1830-1831). This new legal provision is the result of a profound mutation of the Belgian society. Whereas the population census of 1846 showed that more than 99% of the Belgians were Catholics, estimations of 1980 revealed that only 70% were Catholics, and nowadays they are only 50%. During the parliamentary discussions of the eighties and the nineties, the Humanist (non-religious) movement was asking for more equality between religious organisations and “nonreligious” organisations. Instead of cutting the funding of religions to raise more equality between religions and “non-religions”, the Belgian State decided to extend the funding to non-confessional organisations by adding a second paragraph in Article 181 of the Constitution. The purpose of the paper is to analyse – on a juridical point of view – the reasons of such a choice, but also the concrete impacts on the Belgian system and its conformity to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The paper also aims to enlighten which “non-religion” are nowadays financed by the Belgian State and if this system corresponds to the current religious and “non-religious” realities of the society