THE TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW
Proselytism & Conversion
Available in other languages: click here if the language box does not display.
Issue: Proselytism
& Conversion- Human Rights & Freedom
of Religion or Belief.
Review: Background Statement: The Right to
Try to Convince the Other: Missionary Activities and Human Rights, http://www.oslocoalition.org/mhr_background_eng.php
The Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights
records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. UPR Introduction and
News:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx
Member State’s have four
years between Universal Periodic Review cycles to follow-up National Reports on human rights obligations and
responsibilities; recommendations by UN Member States, NGOs, civil society and
other stakeholders.
The United States Universal Periodic Review will be
held in the ninth Universal Periodic Review session in December 2010.
Universal Periodic Review
National Reports seldom has enough information to assess progress on Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights –Everyone has the right to
freedom of religion or belief, and the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination
of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
General Comment 22,
Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human Rights
Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4) is a guide to understanding human rights
treaty law on freedom of religion or belief. Available by clicking on this
link:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument
The Tandem Project
welcomes ideas on how to assess the progress of Universal Periodic Reviews
on human rights standards and freedom of
religion or belief; info@tandemproject.com.
THE TANDEM PROJECT FOLLOW-UP
Proposals for constructive, long-term solutions to conflicts based on
religion or belief:
(1) Develop a model
local-national-international integrated approach to human rights and freedom of
religion or belief, appropriate to the cultures of each country, as follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review. 1. (2) Use International Human Rights Standards on
Freedom of Religion or Belief as a rule of law for inclusive and genuine
dialogue on core values within and among nations, all religions and other
beliefs, and for protection against discrimination. (3) Use the standards on
freedom of religion or belief in education curricula and places of worship,
“teaching children, from the very beginning, that their own religion is one out
of many and that it is a personal choice for everyone to adhere to the religion
or belief by which he or she feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion
or belief at all.” 2.
1:
2: Mr.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Disclaimer: Information on government and
non-governmental websites is for public distribution unless copyrighted.
Recommendations are the opinions of The Tandem Project and not endorsed by
governments and non-governmental organizations to which they are made.
Recommendations come after a UPR has been held by governments, NGOs and others
that have submitted public stakeholder letters. Recommendations for the USA-UPR
are to governments and non-governmental organizations in preparation before the USA-UPR. The USA Example in The Tandem Project
Follow-up applies to all UN Member States.
Becket Fund: http://www.becketfund.org/.
International Religious Freedom Fund News on religious liberty: http://becketinternational.wordpress.com/about-the-irfn/
Google: Proselytism; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proselytism
“Proselytizing is the act of attempting to
convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion or
belief. Historically in the New Testament, the word proselyte denoted a person
who had converted to Judaism. Though the word proselytism originally referred
to Christianity, it is also used to refer to other religions’ attempts to
convert people to their beliefs or even any attempt to convert people to
another point of view, religious or not. Today, the connotations of
proselytizing are often negative and it is commonly used to describe attempts
to force people to convert. It is perceived as rude, intrusive and even a
violation of one’s civil rights.” In Wikipedia terms can be challenged, it has
been described pejoratively this way in the opening paragraph.
Google: Evangelism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism
Evangelism is the practice
of attempting to convert people willingly to a religion. In Christianity it is
referred to as the good news of Jesus Christ as
savior and an obligation from Jesus to his disciples, to “Go therefore, and
teach all nations.” The term is used most often in reference to Christianity
and Islam, since those two religions mandate that their followers make efforts
to recruit as many people as possible into their faith. However, the term may
be used for the practice of attempting to convert people to any religion, even
if that religion does not specifically require that its followers engage in
evangelism.
Google: Religious Conversion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_conversion
The state has an
obligation to ensure the right to change a religion or belief – through
conversion or other means. Terms in relation to conversion include: marital,
secondary, deathbed and forced conversion, coercion and apostasy. Forced
conversion is reported in the Annual U.S. State Department International
Religious Freedom Report, as an example, the recent anti-conversion laws being
proposed in
Proselytism
& conversion without coercion is an issue for international
human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief and should be part of
every Universal Periodic Review.
The State Department
Office of International Religious Freedom mission is to promote religious
freedom as a core objective of U.S. Foreign Policy. Headed by
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, it’s Office Director
and staff monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend
and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs
to promote religious freedom. In October 1998, President Clinton signed into
law (PL 106-55) the International Religious Freedom Act, passed unanimously by
both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The law mandates an Annual
Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom. The Tandem Project uses
the State Department Annual Reports as sources of information for Universal
Periodic Reviews & Freedom of Religion or Belief.
National Prayer Breakfast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast
The National Prayer
Breakfast is a yearly event held in
BYU -
The
Background Statement: The Right to
Try to Convince the Other: Missionary Activities and Human Rights, http://www.oslocoalition.org/mhr_background_eng.php
The Oslo Coalition on
Freedom of Religion or Belief an international network of representatives from
religious and other life-stance communities, NGOs, international organizations
and research institutes. The Oslo Coalition works to advance freedom of
religion or belief as a common benefit that is accepted and embraced by all
religions and persuasions. Drawing on and promoting the internationally
accepted human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief, the Coalition
works to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between communities of
different persuasions and to hinder injustice, intolerance and distrust
springing from religious differences.
World Council of Churches; http://www.oikoumene.org/
The World Council of
Churches (WCC) based in
National Council of Churches
The National Council of
Churches USA is affiliated with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism
of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The National Councils of Churches USA
is an umbrella organization of 23 national churches in the
The Minnesota Council of
Churches is a community of communions who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
As a statewide ecumenical agency formed in 1948, it has brought together
mainline Protestant denominations in
Muslim American Society of
The Muslim American
Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN) is a charitable, religious, social, cultural,
educational, and non-profit organization. It is a pioneering Islamic
organization, an Islamic revival and reform movement that uplifts the
individual, the family, and the society. In 2003 MAS-MN was incorporated as an
affiliate of the Muslim American Society (MAS). The objectives of MAS-MN are:
to present the message of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims and promote
understanding between them; to encourage the participation of Muslims in
building a virtuous and moral society; to offer viable Islamic alternative to
many of our society’s prevailing problems; to promote family values in
accordance with Islamic teachings; to promote human values that Islam come to
emphasize, brotherhood, equality, justice, mercy, compassion and peace; to
foster unity among Muslims and Muslim organizations and encourage coordination
and cooperation.
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Excerpt From: The Right to Try to Convince the
Other: Missionary Activities and Human Rights
5.1. The right to engage in faith persuasion as a part of the right to manifest one's religion or belief
“The right
to engage in faith persuasion is not explicitly mentioned in art. 18. However,
this will normally be a part of the “manifestation” of a belief in paragraph 1
of the article – as “teaching” or as “practice”, the latter covering all
thinkable forms of manifestations that are not explicitly mentioned in the
article.[5] In some
religions, the believers are urged by the religious doctrines to try to spread
the faith. And for all beliefs, as long as the believer is strongly convinced,
he or she will have a natural wish to try to convince others of the “truth” -
if the “truth” is decisive for an afterlife as well, this wish may be strong.
Even if not being an integral part of a religion's or belief's dogmas, such
kind of faith persuasion is covered by the phrase “manifestation”.
This is an
example of “Falling within the ambit of art. 18 (1), the state may
not interfere in proselytism activities without this being
legitimate after para. 3 of the article (the “negative obligation”), cf. para.
6, furthermore, the state has a “positive obligation”, to “ensure” the right: [6] the state is
obliged to give its citizens protection against clear violations from other
citizens who do not respect this right. Thus, the state may be obliged to
protect an adherent of a minority belief, trying to convince a member of the
majority religion, against harassment from the majority.”
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Documents Attached:
USA- Proselytism & Conversion - Universal Periodic Review
Religious Conversions - Creating a Common Code of Conduct
The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Islam & Apostasy - The Right to Change Religion or Belief
United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon, at the Alliance of Civilizations Madrid Forum said; “never
in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and
committed dialogue, among individuals, among communities, among cultures, among
and between nations.”
Genuine dialogue on human
rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse,
discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive
dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and
atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.
The warning signs are clear, unless there is genuine dialogue ranging from
religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism; conflicts in the future will
probably be even more deadly.
In 1968 the UN deferred
work on an International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Religious Intolerance because of its complexity and sensitivity. In forty years
violence, suffering and discrimination based on religion or belief has
dramatically increased. It is time for
a UN Working Group to draft what they deferred in 1968, a comprehensive core
international human rights treaty- a United Nations Convention on Freedom of
Religion or Belief: United
Nations History – Freedom of Religion or Belief
The title, Separation of Religion or Belief and State (SOROBAS), reflects the far-reaching scope of UN
General Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4). The General Comment on
Article 18 is a guide to international human rights law for peaceful
cooperation, respectful competition and resolution of conflicts:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument
Surely one of the best
hopes for humankind is to embrace a culture in which religions and other
beliefs accept one another, in which wars and violence are not tolerated in the
name of an exclusive right to truth, in which children are raised to solve
conflicts with mediation, compassion and understanding.
We welcome ideas on how this can be accomplished; info@tandemproject.com.
The Tandem Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO)
founded in 1986 to build understanding, tolerance and respect for diversity,
and to 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 1981 United Nations Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or
Belief.
The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in
Special Consultative Status with the
Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations