Article 18: Freedom of Religion or Belief
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says we all have the
right to our own beliefs, to have a religion, have no religion, or to change it. For its
time, the UDHR was very progressive in asserting that believers of all religions and
secular beliefs should be able to live peacefully with their rights guaranteed by the
State, while not presuming any national or state-sponsored religion.
Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and “The obligation of the state is to
atheistic believers as well as those who do not guarantee freedom of religion,
profess any religion or belief. Less well known
and that implies dealing with all
is the role that religious organisations played in
launching and sustaining the human rights of them on an equal footing.”
movement. In South Asia, Hinduism inspired –Former Cuban foreign minister
Ricardo Alarcón
Mahatma Gandhi’s long march for the
liberation of India. Protestant Christians led the
fight to abolish slavery in the UK and US in the 19th century. Roman Catholics in
Poland and Lutherans in East Germany were at the vanguard of fighting
authoritarianism at the end of the 20th century, and Roman Catholics in Latin America
pressed for social justice with their “liberation theology.”
As former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein pointed
out, "religious leaders, with their considerable influence on the hearts and minds of
millions of people, are potentially very important human rights actors."
However, religions and human rights are often viewed as conflicting with each other,
with debates raging in Western Europe over whether women should be allowed to
wear headscarves, and blasphemy laws are reportedly misused in parts of Asia to
settle personal grudges. Some argue there needs to be not only freedom of religion
but also freedom from religion, particularly when it is cited as justification for
discriminatory or even harmful practices against women.
Various UN human rights bodies have frequently raised issues related to religious
diversity. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, to
give just one example, recommended that Nigeria repeal or amend its discriminatory
laws, and include religious leaders in the process of addressing issues of faith and
human rights.
To explore potentially positive connections between religions and human rights, the
UN Human Rights Office in 2017 launched an initiative called “Faith for Rights” to
engage religious leaders in an effort to build peaceful societies that uphold human
dignity and equality, and embrace diversity. The campaign began with a ground-
breaking agreement, reached at a meeting in Beirut, on 18 commitments articulating
how “Faith” can more effectively stand up for “Rights” so that supporters of both can
help, rather than oppose, each other. The commitments include a pledge to defend
the freedom of religion or belief of minorities as well as their right to participate equally
and effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. Subsequent
events in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania focused on the role of religious leaders,
women and youth in the promotion of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.
The UN Human Rights Committee has emphasized that domestic laws must not
punish criticism of religious leaders or prevent commentary on religious doctrine and
tenets of faith. Analysis by the Pew Research Center shows that about one-quarter of
the world’s countries and territories had anti-blasphemy laws or policies in 2014, the
last year for which figures are available. Some 13 percent had laws or policies
penalizing apostasy, in some cases making it punishable by death. Some of the most
restrictive countries are also among the most populous, with the result that roughly
three-quarters of the world’s population are living under severe restrictions.
In 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, of
blasphemy charges and overturned her death sentence after determining she had
been falsely accused by Muslim women who did not want her to drink water from the
same cup as them. Her case is one of the best-known examples of how blasphemy
laws can all too easily be used to pursue private vendettas, and the Supreme Court
decision has led to riots by people who insist Asia Bibi should be put to death.
The protection of the right to change religion – labelled apostasy in some countries –
caused divisions among the drafters of the UDHR. Saudi Arabia abstained in the final
vote on the UDHR because of this clause, but other Muslim-majority countries such
as Syria, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan voted for the Declaration. Just before the
proclamation of the UDHR on 10 December 1948, the former Foreign Minister of
Pakistan stressed that Islam strives “to persuade men to change their faith and alter
their way of living, so as to follow the faith and way of living it preached, but it
recognized the same right of conversion for other religions as for itself.”
In some countries, the establishment of
“You can’t deny women their basic secular norms has sometimes clashed with
rights and pretend it’s about your new residents bringing different cultures
‘religious freedom’… Religious and religions. In July 2018, in two landmark
freedom doesn’t mean you can force decisions, the UN Human Rights
others to live by your own beliefs.” Committee found France had violated the
–Former U.S. President Barack Obama rights of two women by fining them for
wearing the niqab, a full-body Islamic veil.
Courts in many countries have also made it clear that religious belief is not a license
to spread hatred, or even commit violence, against followers of other faiths. It is also
not a license to suppress or discriminate against women. In the words of Asma
Jahangir, the former UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and winner
(posthumously) of the 2018 UN Human Rights Prize: “It can no longer be taboo to
demand that women’s rights take priority over intolerant beliefs that are used to justify
gender discrimination.”
This is one in a series of articles published by the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) to mark the 70th anniversary of adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. All rights enshrined in the UDHR are
connected to each other, and all are equally important.
To read the previous articles in this series, please visit:
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23871&L
angID=E
