Protection Against Religious Hatred Under the United Nations ICCPR and the European Convention System
LAW AND RELIGION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: RELATIONS BETWEEN STATES AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES, pp. 215-223, Silvio Ferrari, Rinaldo Cristofori, eds., Aldershot: Ashgate Publ., 2010
10 Pages Posted: 26 Apr 2012
Date Written: April 24, 2012
Abstract
There is a crucial difference between the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, and causing offense, be it in the form of criticism, ridicule or insult of religion, by denying religious doctrinal views, or indeed by blaspheming. Any human-rights-based approach tackling the issue of religious intolerance should take such distinctions into account. Failure to do so not only jeopardizes the fundamental right to freedom of expression but also the core right to religious freedom itself, for the simple reason that one person’s way of exercising a religion may be offensive in the eyes of another. It is argued that from the fact that this is bound to happen all the time in a pluralist society we should not conclude that states must interfere, with a view towards curtailing all potentially defamatory expressions. People taking offence is too subjective a criterion to be used as a ground for limiting fundamental rights. The challenge we are facing is to identify neutral and objective indicators on the basis of which we can assess whether or not state interference is justified.
Keywords: defamarion of religions, blasphemy, ICCPR, ECHR, hate speech, advocacy of religious hatred
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