scholarly journals Why do you hate me so much? An exploration of religious freedom from the perspective of African religion(s)

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibusiso T. Masondo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
The Law ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
The Right

The advent of the 1996 constitution and the promotion of freedom of religion gave space to previously discriminated religious traditions to flourish. There have been a number of revivals of aspects of African Traditional Religion. The Bill of Rights guarantees Religious Freedom but tends to limit it to Freedom of belief. People have every right to believe and practice as long as their practice is in line with the law. This paper is a reflection on the difficulties posed by the notion of Religious Freedom as contained in the 1996 South African constitution for practitioners of African Indigenous Religions and other minority religions. In a case that captured the imagination of the legal fraternity, Gareth Prince, a practicing Rastafarian, was prevented from joining the Bar of the Western Cape because of a prior conviction of being caught in possession of dagga, an illegal substance. He argued that he used cannabis as part of his religious observance. Justice Ngcobo, in his judgement dismissing the case, made it very clear that ‘the right to freedom of religion is not absolute’. In other words, religious practices need to fall within the provisions of the law of the land. At the core of our argument is that the intellectual and cultural resources that were mobilised in writing the South African constitution failed to reflect on the religious practices of indigenous people and other minority religions.

scholarly journals Framework of communication needed to protect against human rights violations of individuals who exercise their right to religious freedom in minority religions

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanus P. Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
International Level ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

The right to religious freedom is generally believed to be the solution to religious intolerance and discrimination and to ensure world peace amongst world citizens. On an international level, the United Nations, through the appointment of a special rapporteur for freedom of religion and belief, has introduced a tool to monitor violations of this right. This tool is known as �the framework of communications� and is focused mainly on the relationship between governments and religions. Unfortunately, religion is not excluded from the violation of human rights within its own ranks. This article pointed out that however pure the intention of freedom of religion, no real measures are in place to address violations of human rights in minority religions. Therefore, a tool is needed to investigate and address alleged violations within minority religions.

scholarly journals Religious interfaith work in Canada and South Africa with particular focus on the drafting of a South African Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain T. Benson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
African Charter ◽  
The Creation ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Protections

Constitutional protections for religious freedom (and related freedoms of conscience, belief and association and equality), once interpreted by courts and tribunals, apply in a precedential manner to future cases. They have an influence well beyond the particular community to which they first applied. For this reason, religious communities have increasingly banded together and sought to intervene or even, on occasion, to initiate legal actions asserting or defending their rights. This article reviews some of the principles around the freedom of religion as understood in South Africa and Canada to show how courts have understood the freedom of religion in its social context. In addition, interfaith cooperation is discussed with particular reference to the recent process which led to the formation of a Charter of Religious Rights and Freedoms pursuant to Section 234 of the South African Constitution (which is attached to the article). This section, a unique provision in any constitution, allows for the creation of additional Charters to give greater specificity to the general language of the Constitution itself. As such, it is an encouragement to civil society to determine what it thinks are the important provisions that should be spelled out to give guidance to politicians and the judiciary. Awide variety of religious groups participated in the creation of the Charter. The Charter does not claim to be, nor could it be, exhaustive of such concerns but demonstrates that religions can cooperate across a host of issues in education, health care, employment and other issues. The next stage – passage into law, is still in the future but the first important hurdle has been crossed with the signing of the Charter in October of 2010. The Charter might be a template for other countries though changes would be necessary to deal with local issues.

scholarly journals God's Kingdom in The Law's Republic: religious freedom in South African constitutional jurisprudence

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Irma J Kroeze
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
Government Power ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
The Right ◽  
Constitutional Jurisprudence

Freedom is central to most constitutions.  In the constitutional context, freedom usually means both personal freedom and political freedom.  Personal freedom can be described as the right to decide for oneself the terms of one's life, both individually and communally.  It is what Frank Michelman calls self-rule: it "demands the people's determination for themselves of the norms that are to govern their social life".3  Political freedom, on the other hand, implies the protection against arbitrary government power.  This is what Michelman calls law-rule.  In most constitutional dispensations both these types of freedom are implicated and the South African constitution is no exception.4  But, it is ironic that in most constitutional democracies these two types of freedom are also frequently in conflict with one another.  In fact, it is not far-fetched to suggest that they are conceptually contradictory.

Limitations to the Right to Religious Freedom: Rethinking Key Approaches

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farrah Raza
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Harm Principle ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Harm Principle

Abstract The right to freedom of religion or belief is one of the most controversial fundamental human rights, and an increasing number of cases on religious freedom highlight the need for normative clarity about its limits. Courts across jurisdictions adopt different approaches to justifying limitations to religious claims in order to resolve conflicts. This article identifies current key approaches to justifying limits to religious practices before proposing a perfectionist version of the harm principle as an alternative. Section 1 sets out the complexities of determining the limitations to religious freedom. Section 2 identifies the shortcomings of four dominant approaches to limitations which include (i) practices deemed to be against the liberal democratic order; (ii) practices that breach the duty of neutrality; (iii) practices that do not constitute a ‘core’ religious belief, and (iv) the choice of alternatives. Section 3 proposes a typology of harms to the autonomy of others as a model for limitations to religious freedom. Section 4 concludes by emphasizing the need for consistency in deciding limitations.

From Toleration to Laïcité

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-161
Author(s):  
Gerhardt Stenger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Saint Augustine ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Political Justification ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
The Right

This paper traces the history of the philosophical and political justification of religious tolerance from the late 17th century to modern times. In the Anglo-Saxon world, John Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) gave birth to the doctrine of the separation of Church and State and to what is now called secularization. In France, Pierre Bayle refuted, in his Philosophical Commentary (1685), the justification of intolerance taken from Saint Augustine. Following him, Voltaire campaigned for tolerance following the Calas affair (1763), and the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) imposed religious freedom which, a century later, resulted in the uniquely French notion of laïcité, which denies religion any supremacy, and any right to organize life in its name. Equality before the law takes precedence over freedom: the fact of being a believer does not give rise to the right to special statutes or to exceptions to the law.

The Umma in Italy: Eurocentric Pluralism, Local Legislation, Courts’ Decisions. How to Make the Right to Worship Real

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Anello
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Basic Assumption ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Veneto Region ◽  
Lombardy Region ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
The Right ◽  
Muslim Minorities

Abstract The article describes the making of the right of worship of Muslim minorities in Europe and its current difficulties, presenting and commenting on the emblematic example of local legislation concerning the building of new mosques in northern Italy. Controlling norms arise from recent decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court. The Court declared unconstitutional certain provisions of two regional laws approved by the Lombardy region (2/2015) and the Veneto region (12/2016), which imposed very strict conditions for the opening, approval and use of mosques. In particular, the Court declared unconstitutional norms that—with regard to the building of places of worship—introduced certain conditions for groups with an agreement with the State and different conditions for those without. Moreover, the Court declared unconstitutional the principle that all religious services that take place in a building open to public should be conducted in Italian. The basic assumption of the article is that current discrimination is the combined result of anti-migration sentiment and Islamophobic prejudices, and the consequence of the Eurocentric nature of the principle of religious freedom. A historically-oriented pluralism and multilevel (national) enforcement of freedom of religion seem to be huge obstacles to the implementation of the right to worship for Muslims in Europe and Italy.

scholarly journals THE RIGHT TO MOTHER-TONGUE EDUCATION: PRACTICABLE OR NOT?

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrizell Chürr
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
The South ◽  
National Education ◽  
Mother Tongue Education ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
The Right ◽  
South African Schools Act

Mother-tongue and mother-tongue education are recognized worldwide as one of the most efficient ways to function cognitively and socially. This article addresses the role of proper mother-tongue education with an emphasis on the importance of “language” since language is vital to a child’s right to a basic education in all its dimensions. Without mother-tongue education, every child’s right to learn and to become a skilful adult, able to participate independently in society, is at risk. The cumulative effect of the South African Constitution, the National Education Policy Act, the South African Schools Act, several international instruments and a number of ground-breaking cases, as well as the interaction between them on mother-tongue education will be examined. The implementation of certain education models will also be proposed.

scholarly journals Theory and Practice of the Realization of the Right to Freedom of Religion: All-Ukrainian and Regional Contexts

2013 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Liudmyla O. Fylypovych
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

The right to freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and religious organizations. Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that this right includes the freedom to profess any religion or not to profess any, to freely send individually or collectively religious ceremonies, to conduct religious activities.

scholarly journals Barns rett til religionsfrihet

Prismet ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 273-287
Author(s):  
Rune Øystese
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
The Right

This article discusses whether there is a tension between granting children freedom of religion and giving the parents the right to decide over the upbringing of their children. It presents what Norwegian law, which has incorporated several UN Human Rights conventions, has to say about this. It also discusses whether the interpretation presented can be in the best interest of the child. The last part addresses how parents can give their children a sound religious upbringing and still give them the freedom to choose their own faith.Keywords: Rights of children and parents, Religious freedom, Religious upbringingNøkkelord: Barn og foreldres rettigheter, religiøs frihet, religiøs oppdragelse,

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document