Last week the Prime Minister confirmed that\u00a0freedom of religion and freedom\u00a0of speech lie at the heart of Britain\u2019s \u201cstrong tradition\u201d of religious tolerance. Tomorrow, as we mark International Human Rights Day, it is vital to remember that religious rights are human rights.<\/p>\n
Fiona Bruce
Conservative MP for Congleton, Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission
Benedict Rogers
Human rights activist, writer and Conservative candidate
09\/12\/2016 17:04<\/p>\n
Last week the Prime Minister confirmed that freedom of religion and freedom<\/a> of speech lie at the heart of Britain\u2019s \u201cstrong tradition\u201d of religious tolerance. Tomorrow, as we mark International Human Rights Day, it is vital to remember that religious rights are human rights.<\/p>\n Freedom of thought, conscience and religion – more often abbreviated to \u201cfreedom of religion or belief\u201d – is a human right for everyone, guaranteed in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a>. And yet too often it is a neglected right: at best ignored or misunderstood, at worst severely violated.<\/p>\n As we mark International Human Rights Day, we recognise that all human rights set out in the Universal Declaration are inter-dependent and equally important. Freedoms of religion, expression, association and movement, for example, hang together. There is no hierarchy of rights. However, if people are denied the freedom to choose, practice, share and change their beliefs, what use are the other freedoms? The outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr Heiner Bielefeldt, describes freedom of religion or belief as a \u201cgateway\u201d to other freedoms.<\/p>\n Around the world, freedom of religion or belief has never been under as much attack as it is today. \u201cMassive violations of freedom of religion or belief are currently taking place,\u201d according to Dr Bielefeldt. The genocide facing Christians, Yazidis and Muslims at the hands of ISIS in Syria and Iraq is unspeakable. The ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingyas from Burma<\/a> is horrific. Baha\u2019is in Iran, Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia, Uighur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners and Tibetan Buddhists in China, and Christians across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and in parts of Latin America such as Cuba, face continuing persecution. And, as the latest report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union<\/a> illustrates, in parts of the world it is as dangerous to not have a religious belief as it is to have one. Atheists such as Alexander Aan<\/a> in Indonesia are jailed because they do not believe in God. Article 18 of the UDHR, properly applied, should protect the rights of everyone, of all beliefs and none.<\/p>\n In his final report <\/a>to the United Nations, Dr Bielefeldt argues that this right is \u201cmultifaceted\u201d, protecting not simply freedom of worship but \u201cthe free development of religious or belief-related identities, bearing witness to one\u2019s existential conviction by freely communicating\u201d beliefs with others. It is about \u201call aspects of religious and belief-related life\u201d, not only what one believes in one\u2019s heart and mind, but about the community which arises from that and the conduct that it entails. He confirms what the Equalities Commissioner has said, and what the new report from the Lawyers Christian Fellowship and the Evangelical Alliance report \u201cSpeak Up\u201d<\/a>concludes – that freedom of religion or belief is important, being \u201cin turn foundational for many of our other freedoms, human rights and civil liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n Governments, Dr Bielefeldt argues, have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the implementation of human rights standards. In too many parts of the world, it is the State that is the primary violator of freedom of religion or belief – whether through unjust restrictions and regulations and violent persecution, as in communist countries such as China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea, or through discriminatory laws that contribute to a climate of intolerance and extremism, such as blasphemy laws in Pakistan and Indonesia and their equivalent in Burma, or through allowing a culture of impunity to exist where perpetrators of religiously-motivated violence are never brought to justice, or through an education curriculum that promotes hatred or intolerance. According to the Special Rapporteur, \u201carguably the most widespread pattern of State-induced violations of freedom of religion or belief relates to harassment by an uncooperative bureaucracy that may treat people belonging to certain religious communities with contempt, hostility or suspicion\u201d. Even in Britain and other western democracies, we are not exempt from this challenge.<\/p>\n The outgoing UN Special Rapporteur believes there is a \u201clack of awareness\u201d around the world about the importance of freedom of religion or belief, and that the full scope of this basic human right is \u201coften underestimated\u201d. On this International Human Rights Day it is time to change that.<\/p>\n In 212, Tertullian said: \u201cIt is a fundamental human right that every man should worship according to his own convictions\u201d and in 1819 Thomas Jefferson argues that: \u201cThe constitutional freedom of religion is the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights\u201d. In 2016, at home and abroad, it is time to actively promote, protect and uphold this basic right of freedom of religion or belief once more. That is why it was so encouraging to hear the Prime Minister confirm in the House of Commons recently the importance of maintaining \u201c\u2018the jealously guarded principle\u2019 of the ability to speak freely…respectfully and responsibly about one\u2019s religion\u201d in this country today.<\/p>\n