Part II | Outline

Category D | Human Rights

Topic 20 | Human rights and FoRB

Freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is a fundamental human right, recognized in nearly every human rights instrument and in most constitutions adopted since the end of World War II, which marked the beginning of the human rights era.

• FoRB is an acronym for freedom of religion or belief, which is often used as a shorthand for freedom of thought, conscience, and religion—the human right as articulated in most rights instruments. The acronym reflects the fact that the right to FoRB is for everyone—the religious, those for whom religion is unimportant, the non-religious, and those who are adamantly secular or even atheistic in their beliefs.

• Foundational documents that recognize the right to FoRB are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981 Declaration).

  • Limitations. Foundational documents establish that the right to belief is absolute while the right to manifest beliefs is subject to some defined limitations.
  • Treaty obligations. The ICCPR, a binding treaty, has been ratified by 174 states, all of which are legally bound to comply with the ICCPR, including the obligation to recognize and protect the right to FoRB.

• National constitutions. The aftermath of World War II, including the development of international human rights and decolonization, and the end of the Cold War led many nations to draft or revise their constitutions in the latter half of the twentieth century. Approximately 97% of national constitutions today contain FoRB-related provisions.

• Monitoring institutions. States have created various international institutions to monitor compliance with human rights, including the right to FoRB. Some of these institutions are part of, or are supported by, the United Nations. Others are regional and focus on compliance with regional human rights guarantees by the countries in a particular region. Others focus on domestic human rights or civil rights laws.

• Criticisms. Some critics claim that human rights, including the right to FoRB, have been politicized and weaponized and that human rights are an imposition of Western values on others. Some have criticized the right to FoRB as antagonistic with other rights, such as LGBTQ rights. And FoRB and religion have come to be associated with negative social phenomena such as bigotry or violence.

  • Responses  

    • Countries have undertaken important constitutional and treaty commitments to human rights and the right to FoRB, and they have a duty to uphold those commitments. It is hard to argue that human rights are an imposition from others when countries themselves have undertaken to make these commitments.
    • Critics are generally unable to identify which human rights are dispensible.
    • The idea that human rights are a Western construct overlooks the significant contributions to the human rights landscape of individuals from various hemispheres and cultural, political, and religious/belief backgrounds.
    • Criticisms of FoRB as a non-universal value do not consider the value of FoRB in and of itself, regardless of its supposed origins.
    • The fact that many criticisms of human rights originate from a privileged place or person demonstrates that it is easier to critique a right when and where that right is not being violated.
    • FoRB represents the proposition that human beings must be free to choose what they believe to be true in matters of faith and conviction. Protecting rights to choose can help prevent the violence and bigotry that FoRB is accused of engendering.