This intervention summarizes some of the findings and insights that result from many years of research at both ULB and Ghent University on the topics raised in the Mikyas case. We are presenting it in a format that we hope will be useful to the lawyers and Judges who will be working on this case. In a first part, we present several highly relevant elements of the legal and societal context of the case: the situation regarding bans on religious signs/dress worn by pupils in Belgian schools and their impact (1.1.), the broader context of bans on religious signs/dress in Belgium (1.2.), the broader context of hostility against Muslims in Belgian society (1.3.), church/state relations in Belgium (1.4.), the treatment of bans on religious signs/dress in international human rights law (1.5.), and the relevance of intersectionality (1.6.). This will be followed by a second part, suggesting pathways of legal reasoning under the Convention in this type of cases.