Religion and Human Rights
December 8, 2004
Key Issues: Historical

What human rights owes to religion
Key Issues: Philosophical

Duties to mankind versus duties to God

Religious ethics versus human rights: the
idea of universality

Human rights and the idea of the sacred
Key Issues: Political

Freedom of expression versus respect for
religion: the Dutch case

Right to proselytize versus respect for
religion: the missionary issue

Freedom of religion versus republican
egalitarianism: the French case
Human Rights and Religion:
History
To 1648

Rights of freemen, rights of nobles versus power of
the king

Secular rights versus religious courts

Natural rights and religious war

Rights as a state monopoly

Religious toleration and its limits
The Age of Revolution

The natural right of resistance

The rights of man as secular reason
The Struggle for Inclusion since 1789

The Poor: property and voting rights

Women: gender equality

Slaves: racial equality

Colonial Peoples: self-determination

Religion and the defense of the old order
Since 1945

Nazism and the disgrace of nationalism

Genocide and the silence of the Church

The crisis of the Westphalian state and the
return of natural law
The Creation of Human Rights Law:
1948-1976

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966

International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights,
1966

The Helsinki Final Act and the emergence of a single
global rights culture

Religious freedom as a human rights issue: China, Iran
Conclusion: What Human Rights Owes to
Religion

Human Rights and Religious Syncretism

Human Rights as Secular Reason
Human Rights and Religion:
Philosophy
Duties to Mankind versus Duties to God

Religion as a Subordination of Man to God

Religion as a Justification of Violence

Human Rights and Human Dignity

Human Rights and Hubris
The Idea of Universality

Religion and Moral Outcasts: the Unbeliever,
the Sinner, the Infidel, the Heretic

Human Rights and the Embrace of the
Outcast
The Idea of the Sacred

The idea of the sacred and the ‘right to have
rights’

In place of the sacred: philosophical
anthropology

The anthropology of agency

The anthropology of empathy
Human Rights and Religion:
Politics
Current Conflicts Between Religion and
Human Rights
Freedom of Expression versus Tolerance:
the Dutch Case

Is freedom of expression conditional upon
respect?

If freedom of expression is not conditional
upon respect, how is civil peace possible?
The Right to Proselytize: the Case of
Missionaries

Freedom of religion implies the right to
spread the Word of God

Spreading the Word of God may insult other
religions

When should the right to proselytize cede to
the obligation to respect other faiths?
Freedom of Religion versus Republican
Egalitarianism: the French Case

Freedom of religion implies the right to
display of religious allegiance in public

French schools ban ostensible religious signs
in public schools

Should republican egalitarianism trump
private religious freedom?
Conclusions

The struggle for rights inclusion is not over: religion has joined race and
class as sources of exclusion

Rights inclusion is not enough: juridical equality for faiths, races and
classes does not deliver real equality

Tolerance is not a pact of mutual indifference

Tolerance is active adjudication of difference

The supremacy of secular law faces a challenge from Islam and
Christianity

Majority secular cultures must reconcile tolerance with unity and
indivisibility of citizenship.