5.C.1.5

Targu Jiu

 

The freedom of conscience and the freedom of religion in international documents

 

 

          History proves that intolerance has generated wars and human dramas more than any other types of discrimination or rejection. From the conscience and the religious point of view, personal or ethnic dramas came century after century. At the same time, though the problem of the human rights is a matter of the 20^th century, it is not yet a new one. Thus, in the Greek philosophy the problem of equality among people developed starting from the idea of the natural rights. At the beginning of the Christianity, as well as in other religions, this tradition of the natural rights met a special development: all the people were created by God. These ideas were the ground for the human rights, even if then they didn’t have too much in common with politics. There were philosophical considerations which started to penetrate the politic and the social level of the human rights at the beginning of the modern epoch.

          The first relevant documents regarding the guaranteeing of the human rights appeared in England: ”Magna Carta Libertatum” (1215), “Petition of Rights”(1628), “Habeas Corpus Act” (1679). There followed documents which were the base of organizing the United States of America: ”Bill of Rights”(Virginia,1776), “The Declaration of Independence”(July 4^th 1776).

          The decisive moment concerning the human rights was made by “The Declaration of the Human Rights and of the Citizen” adopted by the National Congress of France on the 26^th of August 1789. The article 4 stated: ”freedom means to be able to do whatever it doesn’t disturb the others” and in the article 10:” Nobody can be taken to account for his opinions, may they be religious, if their expressing doesn’t disturb the public order established by the law”.

          It was a beginning in the national and international solving of the problems concerning the freedom of conscience and of religion. If on the national level the constitutions brought gradual regulations, on the international level the two world wars and the creation of the United Nation Organization (1945) led to major movements. Thus, “The Universal Declaration of the Human Rights” adopted on the 10^th of December 1948 stipulated in the article 18:” the right to the freedom of thought, of conscience and of religion; this right includes the freedom of changing religion or faith as well as the freedom of expressing them, either on their own or together with other people, both in public and in particular, by education, practice, cult, rituals.”

          During the next period some documents from the U.N.O. stressed the necessity of respecting the freedom of conscience and of religion. Thus, “The International Agreement on the economic, social and cultural rights” (adopted and opened to be ratified by the General Congress in the Resolution 2200 on the 16^th of December 1966) came into effect on the 3^rd of January 1976 and specified in the first article:” the signer states agree that education must ease the understanding, the tolerance and the friendship among all the ethnic and religious groups”. The second article states that “the signer states accept to respect the parents’ or the tutors’ right to ensure their children’s religious education.”

          “The international agreement on the civic and politic rights” (adopted and opened to be ratified by the General Congress of the U.N.O. in the Resolution 2200 on the 16^th of December 1966) came to effect on the 3^rd of January 1976 and   showed in the article 18:” Each person has the right to the freedom of thought, conscience  and religion; this right implies  the freedom of having or adopting a religion or a religious belief according to his personal option, as well as the freedom  of expressing the religion or the religious belief, individually or in common, both in private or in public. Nobody will suffer any coercion to affect his freedom of having or adopting a religion or a religious belief”. The article 20 forbids the racial or the religious hate.

          Another fundamental document is “The Declaration regarding the removal of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination because of religious reasons”, adopted by the general Congress of the U.N.O. on the25th of November 1981. Even in the first article they stated that “each person has the right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion according to their option”. The 3^rd article said that “the discrimination among the human beings because of religious reasons is an offence to the human dignity and a disavowal of the U.N.’s Charta and must be reproved as a violation of the human rights”.

          In “The Declaration regarding the rights of the persons belonging to the national, ethnic, religious or linguistic  minority” (adopted by the General Congress in the Resolution 47135 on the 18^th of December 1992) they  say that this category  have the right to their own culture, religion, language, conscience.

          The European countries, after centuries of persecution knew to assume the man’s fundamental values, gradually changing the continent into a place of tolerance and of human freedom. The first step was made by “the European Convention regarding the Protection of the Human Rights and of the Fundamental Freedom” elaborated at Rome on the 4^th of November 1950 and signed by the states of the European Council. In the article 9 it was stated that “any person has the right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

          The present documents and actions of the U.N.O., of the E.U. continually regard the regulation of the freedom of conscience and religion as inseparable parts of the human rights and dignity.

 

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