Constitution-law study of the concept of “tolerance” in the UN documents in connection with the adoption of the Resolution on religious tolerance

Abstract

Before 12.12.2018 in the official UN documents, the English-language concept of "tolerance" always corresponded to the Russian-language concept of «forbearance». Both these concepts were used to denote the optimal principle of relationships between people with different immanent features (hereinafter – "the optimal principle of relationships"). However, starting with 12.12.2018, the English-language concept of "tolerance" corresponds not only to the concept of «forbearance» in the Russian-language UN documents, but also to the concept of «tolerance» proper. The existence of such dualism creates difficulties in interpreting the provisions of the Russian Constitution on human rights and other laws. Therefore, it became necessary to understand which of the two concepts is more consistent with the content of the "optimal principle of relations". The study examined scientific sources, more than two thousand documents in the official languages of the UN, and examined the relationship between the concepts of "tolerance": "forbearance" and "tolerance" proper in official documents. Conclusions were made that it is not possible to definitely establish from documents in Russian which of the concepts is more consistent with the content of the "optimal principle of relationships"; from the content of the UN documents in all languages, as well as scientific papers, it follows that semantically this principle corresponds to the concept of «tolerance». The full description of the principle is presented in the document "Declaration of the Principles of Tolerance"; this allows the content of the declaration to be used in interpreting article 2 and other provisions of the Constitution.