Criteria and constraints: the Human Rights Committee’s test on limiting the freedom of religion or belief

The Human Rights Committee—the treaty body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—performs a vital function in supervising the Covenant’s implementation. This article presents an analytical account of the Committee’s approach to determining the permissibility of l...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Special Issue: Limitations to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Theory and Practice, edited by Nazila Ghanea & Thiago Alves Pinto
Main Author: Gunatillake, Gehan (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill, Nijhoff 2020
In: Religion and human rights
Year: 2020, Volume: 15, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 20-38
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
XA Law
Further subjects:B limitation clauses
B freedom of religion or belief
B Human Rights
B Human Rights Committee
B ICCPR
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:The Human Rights Committee—the treaty body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—performs a vital function in supervising the Covenant’s implementation. This article presents an analytical account of the Committee’s approach to determining the permissibility of limitations on the freedom of religion or belief under the Covenant. It finds that the Committee has set out certain primary legal criteria when determining the permissibility of a limitation. The Committee has then articulated certain additional normative constraints that apply to states’ authority to limit rights—such as the requirement that the limitation be compatible with the principle of non-discrimination. Based on an analysis of the Committee’s general comments and jurisprudence, the author argues that the Committee has offered a path towards imposing on states a heavier burden to justify limitations on the freedom of religion or belief.
ISSN:1871-0328
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion and human rights
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/18710328-BJA10002