THE TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
There may be an effort in
the seventh session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to add religion to
the Convention on race as part of the post-Durban process. This would be a
mistake. Freedom of Religion or Belief should stand alone as a treaty-based
Convention. Religious conflict is at least equal in importance and transcendent
from conflict based on race.
“Religion raises the
stakes of human conflict much higher than tribalism, racism, or politics ever
can, as it is the only form of in-group/out-group thinking that casts the
differences between people in terms of eternal rewards and punishments.” – Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian
Nation
Drafting a treaty-based
Convention on religious intolerance was one of the most important early
foundational concerns of the United Nations. Decisions were made in 1962 and
1963 that led the UN General Assembly in 1968 to defer work on a draft
Convention on Religious Intolerance:
1962: “The General Assembly adopted a
resolution requesting ECOSOC to ask the Commission to prepare a draft
declaration and a draft convention on the elimination of racial discrimination.
It also adopted a similarly worded resolution requesting ECOSOC to ask the
Commission to prepare a draft declaration and a draft convention on the
elimination of all forms of religious intolerance.”
1963: “The decision to separate the
instruments on religious intolerance from those on racial discrimination
constituted a compromise solution designed to satisfy a number of conflicting
viewpoints. Western states insisted on addressing both matters in a joint
instrument. Communist states were not anxious to deal with religious matters.
African and Asian states considered the question of religious intolerance a
minor matter compared with racial discrimination. In contrast to the religious
intolerance matter, international instruments on the elimination of racial
discrimination were adopted fairly swiftly, in 1963 and 1965 respectively.” – Freedom of Religion or Belief; Ensuring Effective International Legal
Protection, Bahyyih G. Tahzib, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, September,
1995
Open this link for a
year-by-year history of Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief:
http://www.tandemproject.com/program/history.htm
It is unfortunate if the
mandate on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief is placed in a
subordinate position to racial discrimination. Religion has important issues
that transcend race; one being a debate on whether there is a conflict between
faith and science. Philip Meyer has said; “Religion is about the mystery,
science is about figuring out what works in the material world. No one needs to
frame the argument as a choice between religion and science. We can have both
as long as we don’t use either one to test the other.” For long term
solutions to conflicts based on religion or belief a question needs to be
addressed; how best to promote tolerance and provide protection against all
forms of intolerance and discrimination equally, for theistic,
non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any
religion or belief.
______________________________________________________________________________
Reply: The Tandem Project Country & Community Database
collects information worldwide on United Nations Human Rights Bodies. The
information is used for UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Reviews
(UPR); UN Treaty-based Reports; UN Special Procedures, Special Rapporteur
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The Tandem Project: a non-profit, non-governmental
organization established in 1986 to build understanding and respect for
diversity of religion or belief, and prevent discrimination in matters relating
to freedom of religion or belief. The Tandem Project has sponsored multiple
conferences, curricula, reference materials and programs on Article 18 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and the 1981 United Nations
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination
Based on Religion or Belief.
The Tandem Project
initiative was launched in 1986 as the result of a co-founder representing the
World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) at a 1984 United
Nations Geneva Seminar, Encouragement of
Understanding, Tolerance and Respect in Matters
Relating to Freedom of Religion or Belief, called by the UN
Secretariat on ways to implement the 1981 UN Declaration. In 1986, The Tandem
Project organized the first NGO International Conference on the 1981 UN
Declaration.
The Tandem Project
Executive Director: Michael M. Roan, mroan@tandemproject.com.
Documents Attached:
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
ESSAY - UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in
Special Consultative Status with the
Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations