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secular-rational approach cannot accomplish is the most important thing: to “give a reason
for the absoluteness and universality of ethical obligation.”
Although the outcome of many discussions and revisions, the “Declaration toward a Global Ethic”
adopted by the religious parliament in 1993 still shows clearly the inspiration of its drafter.
Moral globalism—as presented above—surely has important merits. In a world torn asunder by
multiple forms of strife, nothing seems more timely than to be reminded of our shared
humanity and of the universal aspirations present in religious teachings and prominent
philosophical traditions.
Political Theory 2003; 31; 421
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://ptx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/3/421
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – religious
freedom
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
Advocating for the forgotten human right
Advocacy for human rights is a principal concern of social work,particularly the rights listed in the
United Nations’ (1948/98) UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights. Adopted by the UN
GeneralAssembly without the dissent of any nation in 1948 (Gil, 1998),the Declaration represents
a global consensus regarding which rights are universal. In other words, these rights apply equally
to all human beings around the world, independent of their recognition in law.
Among the rights articulated in the Declaration is Article 18, which states that ‘everyone has the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change
his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching,practice, worship and observance’
(United Nations, 1948/98: 18).Forum 18, a Norwegian human rights organization specializing in
religious freedom, summarizes this multifaceted right as: a) the right to believe, worship and
witness, b) the right to change one’sbelief or religion and c) the right to join together and
expressone’s beliefs (Nesvag et al., 2001).
Although ranking human rights is problematic, religious freedom has long been considered one of
the most basic rights (Lerner, 2000).Religion typically involves core inner convictions about
ultimatemetaphysical concerns (Hill and Pargament, 2003). Thus, religious decisions are different
in character, because they do not have thesame metaphysical ramifications as decisions made in
many otherareas. Eternal – heaven or hell – decisions differ in nature from temporaldecisions,
such as which political party to endorse in the nextelection. Consequently, violations of religious
freedom are oftene xperienced as particularly severe violations of human dignitybecause they
infringe on the most sacred area of a person’s being.In spite of its historical importance and
prominent place in the Declaration, religious freedom has been largely ignored in recent years
(Marshall, 2000). Indeed, religious freedom has been referred to as the forgotten human right
(Osttveit, 2003). Human rights friendly states, non-governmental organizations, academic
researchers,media outlets, international supervisory organizations and other organizations have
devoted relatively little attention toreligious freedom (Lerner, 2000; Nesvag et al., 2001). This
lack of attention is particularly troubling in light of the increasing global prevalence of religious
persecution.
Religious persecution – a global crisis
Religious persecution can be defined as severe discrimination that stems from an individual’s faith
(Marshall, 2000). Discrimination is manifested in the denial of any of the rights of religious
freedom.It is important to acknowledge that discrimination is often a complex phenomenon in
which multiple identities related to religion,race, gender, class and other factors are intertwined.