Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by David Harris
- Preface
- Table of cases, applications, and communications
- Table of treaties, declarations, and other international instruments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Freedom of religious choice
- 3 The scope of the forum internum beyond religious choice
- 4 The right to manifest religious belief and applicable limitations
- 5 Conclusion
- Annexes
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by David Harris
- Preface
- Table of cases, applications, and communications
- Table of treaties, declarations, and other international instruments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Freedom of religious choice
- 3 The scope of the forum internum beyond religious choice
- 4 The right to manifest religious belief and applicable limitations
- 5 Conclusion
- Annexes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The escalating religious intolerance of recent years, both through State violation and by non-State entities, is most conspicuous in events following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, in religious conflict in many parts of the world and, of course, in the attacks of 11 September 2001. This has caused speculation whether the international instruments which were developed more than half a century ago, and those which followed but were shaped by those instruments, are sufficient to meet present and foreseeable demands. The array of religious violations visible in so many countries today could not have been anticipated by the drafters of the core freedom of religion Articles in the foundational instruments, namely the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the European Convention. The development of comparable provisions in later instruments, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief (‘the 1981 Declaration’), suggests that the issues which fashioned the text of those later provisions did not depart significantly from those faced by the original drafters, except perhaps in the intensity with which they were debated.
Among recent patterns of violation, particularly in countries of the former Soviet Union, are measures such as prohibitive registration formalities and bans on proselytism aimed at the protection of a traditional State religion or the preservation of national identity in reaction to the influx of new religious movements.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Freedom of ReligionUN and European Human Rights Law and Practice, pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005