Editorial. Introducing this special issue

Since 2020, the health crisis due to the spread of COVID-19 has had a devastating impact not only on our social lives but also on the exercise of fundamental free-doms, the protection of which is grounded in constitutional and international frameworks. Understandably, during an unparalleled health crisis, states’ first priority was to protect public health. However, the health emergency emphasized. underlying and previously existing elements of legal, social and and financial weakness in many legal contexts, including a frail balance between mainstream religious groups and religious minorities. The aim of the paper is to to introduce a special issue focusing on the pandemic’s impact on religious minorities in various legal contexts, as the health emergency highlighted situations of structural inequality and threatened to increase the marginalization of minorities.