The Tandem Project is a nonprofit international human rights organization (NGO) founded in 1985 to promote tolerance and prevent discrimination based on religion or belief.

The Tandem Project Human Rights Education Manual, How to Monitor Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief: Equal Rights by Separation of Belief and State, was launched in September 2004 in Oslo, Norway. The Manual has an Introductory Course and 12 Study Topics as a civic guide for Community and Country Assessment Reports on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief. Articles of the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief are used to promote tolerance and prevent discrimination at national and local levels.

Website: www.tandemproject.com.

Tensions between and within religious and non-religious beliefs are emerging threats to civil society. We need to find ways to hold our own religion or belief in tandem with the right of others to believe as they choose, subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and necessary to protect the public. We need to promote moral values that are inclusive rather than divisive.

International law on human rights and freedom of religion or belief is not well known. What is understood is that religion or belief is universal, transcending sovereign state boundaries. Respect at this level requires universal norms to ensure protection for all individuals, religious and non-religious beliefs. The Tandem Project Human Rights Education Manual uses United Nations norms and standards as a non-sectarian civic guide for monitoring and for education on human rights and freedom of religion or belief.

• Article 18 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) proclaims: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest has religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.”

• The UN Human Rights Committee General Comment on Article 18 of the ICCPR states: “Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.”

• The UN Human Rights Committee General Comment on Article 18 further states: “the concept of morals derives from many social, philosophical and religious traditions; consequently, limitations on the freedom to manifest a religion or belief for the purpose of protecting morals must be based on principles not deriving from a single tradition.”

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a recommendation to the UN General Assembly, stated: “Value-oriented human rights education alone is insufficient. Human rights education should make reference to human rights instruments and mechanisms of protection for ensuring accountability.”

In 1967 the UN deferred work on a draft Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief. A UN staff study recalled the difficulty to legislate a Convention on religious intolerance since it impinges upon the most intimate emotions of human beings. Instead, after 14 years of discussion, the UN adopted a non-binding 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, an effective but incomplete mechanism for monitoring human rights and freedom of religion or belief.

Concerned for the serious challenges and issues facing the mandate, The Tandem Project calls for dialogue on the pros and cons of asking the UN to re-constitute the 1967 Working Group for a draft Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief. If the UN prefers not to consider a legally binding Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief then, in the opinion of The Tandem Project, they should consider how to provide a more comprehensive enforcement mechanism using the1981 UN Declaration already adopted by the General Assembly.

The Tandem Project Human Rights Education Manual, How to Monitor Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief recognizes the indivisibly of human rights and links the 1981 UN Declaration to other international human rights norms and standards. The Study Topics to prepare a Community or Country Assessment Report on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief are for public populations of less than 100,000, but can be used at regional and national levels.

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