Justifying Freedom of Religion: Does ‘Dignity’ Help?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Rivers
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Political Traditions

Underlying the practice of the protection of freedom of religion in constitutional and human rights law is a debate about the justifications for such protection. Many of the arguments which have been offered during the emergence of the liberal democratic tradition from the seventeenth century onwards are instrumental or theological in nature. By contrast, modern justifications tend to be ‘dignitarian’ in character—non-instrumental and non-theological. Yet they struggle to identify religion as a sufficiently broad liberty-grounding good, or they dissolve freedom of religion into other rights of conscience, expression and association. In general, such dignitarian justifications fail to ground the practice of legally protected religious liberty in liberal democratic political traditions. One fundamental reason for this may lie in the anti-religious tendency of an emerging postmodern conception of human dignity.

Recent Developments in Religious Liberty

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Leigh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
European Court ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Uk

This is the first in what is intended as a series of comments on current developments in the law concerning freedom of religion that will appear regularly in this Journal. This first survey deals with religious liberty challenges brought in the UK courts in 2007 and 2008. A subsequent survey will examine similar developments in international human rights law and especially before the European Court of Human Rights.

Universal Human Dignity: Some Reflections in the Asian Context

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Yee Karen Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Common Association

AbstractThe idea of “human dignity” is accorded a prominent status in domestic constitutions and international human rights law. Its symbolism as a universal ground of human rights sits awkwardly with the absence of a precise definition. The concept has evolved over history and has been interpreted in various ways by people holding different worldviews. The elusive nature of human dignity creates challenges when it is evaluated across cultures. Despite its common association with the concept of liberal democracy, the idea of human worthiness is not necessarily absent in Asian societies, many of which function under alternative political systems.A cross-cultural perspective requires putting aside ethnocentrism and exploring the convergence of views from different belief systems. Examples from Confucianism and Islam may provide insights on how human dignity is understood and realized in various Asian contexts.

Human Rights, Human Dignity,and Human Experience

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo G. Carozza
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Common Point ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Concrete Experience ◽  
Foundational Principle ◽  
Core Meaning ◽  
Point Of Reference

The contested understandings of human dignity today make it very problematic as a reliable principle for determining the scope and merit of particular claims of human rights (at least beyond the principle’s narrow, universally agreed-upon core meaning). Merely relying on an overlapping consensus is insufficient. Nevertheless, the beginnings of a broader shared understanding of the meaning and implications of human dignity, as a foundational principle of human rights law, can emerge from our concrete experience. As a common point of reference for critically evaluating and integrating the diversity of instantiations of human rights in differing legal traditions, the elementary experience of human dignity leads us to regard law as a vehicle for sustained and reasoned reflection on the value of human persons and on the scope of our obligations to respect and protect them.

Part III Structural Principles, Ch.14 Human Dignity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carozza Paolo G
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Instruments

This article examines the issue of human dignity in relation to human rights. It analyses the functions and principle of human dignity and its use in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments. It suggests that human dignity seems to help justify expansive interpretations of human rights and strengthens the centrality and importance of the right in question and limiting possible exceptions or limitations to that right. This article also contends that the difficulty of reaching greater consensus on the meaning and implications of human dignity in international human rights law may be attributed to the fact that it refers to both a foundational premise of human rights and to a principle that affect interpretation and application of specific human rights.

Part 1 Freedom of Religion or Belief, 1.1 Freedom to Adopt, Change, or Renounce a Religion or Belief

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bielefeldt Heiner, Prof ◽  
Ghanea Nazila, Dr ◽  
Wiener Michael, Dr
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Coercive Measure ◽  
State Actors

This chapter focuses on everyone’s right to adopt, change, or renounce a religion or belief without restraints. That part of freedom of religion or belief has always been particularly controversial and it continues to be contested in theory and practice. In many countries, converts suffer societal harassment, open or concealed forms of discrimination and sometimes brutal acts of persecution committed by State agencies or non-State actors. While the freedom to convert to another religion or belief (including non-belief) enjoys unconditional protection in human rights law, the freedom to induce others to convert by employing non-coercive measure of persuasion can be limited, if deemed necessary and in accordance with the criteria set out for imposing limitations. Nonetheless, the two issues of conversion and missionary activities closely belong together in practice, since restrictions imposed by States on ‘proselytism’ often aim at de-legitimizing acts of ‘apostasy’ as well.

scholarly journals Exploring the use of the concept human dignity in disability human rights law: from UNCRPD to EctHR

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-53
Author(s):  
Elif Celik
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
European Court ◽  
History Of

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) accommodates the concept of human dignity more fully than does any other human rights treaty. The role and interpretation of dignity is thus particularly interesting from the perspective of disability human rights and case law. This study examines the role and significance of the concept of dignity in relation to the human rights disability discourse and jurisdiction through the guidance and impact of the CRPD. It examines the currently available jurisprudence of the CRPD Committee and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in light of the CRPD, seeking to identify the rights that are particularly related to the concept of dignity through the perspective of disability and to identify the requirements of the respect for dignity for persons with disabilities. While accepting the limitations of the sources in this examination due to the recent history of the CRPD, the study nevertheless locates some points where human dignity has particular relevance to the realisation of the rights protected in the CRPD.

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