Part I | Brief Summary

Category D | Human Rights

Topic 22 | Religious freedom as the grandparent of human rights

Religious freedom is sometimes referred to as the grandparent of human rights, reflecting both its early significance as the oldest internationally recognized human right and its relation to other basic human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. Going back to rights documents as early as the Magna Carta (1215), some form of religious freedom has been recognized as a right. Recognizing religious freedom as a progenitor of the human rights family and preserving family ties to that grandparent right are necessary for all rights in the human rights family to flourish.