Freedom of Religion or Belief as a Legal Value in Contemporary Discourses on Human Rights

Abstract

The article examines understudied dimensions of the interpretation of human rights in Ukrainian science, highlighting their key role in shaping the contemporary objectives and orientations for the right to freedom of religion or belief. This work reveals the main provisions regarding the definition and legal safeguarding of religious freedom in each of the modern approaches to the interpretation of human rights: the Sustainable Development Goals, the capability approach, decolonialism and the feminist approach.Along with the classical framework of international human rights law, these approaches broaden the spectrum of perspectives on realizing the right to freedom of religion or belief. The Sustainable Development Goals consider religious freedom in terms of achieving the well-being of present and future generations and leaving no one behind. The capability approach complements the formal definition of the right to religious freedom, with the individual’s actual ability to exercise such a right. Decolonial and feminist studies provide a thorough critique of established notions of law, deconstructing and reconstructing them through analysis of the rights and needs of women, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups.Despite individual features in the interpretation of legal and social phenomena, all approaches (sustainable development, the capability approach, decolonialism, feminism and anti-discrimination) share one common characteristic: they offer an alternative point of view on the established relationships that exist in specific societies. The feminist approach, for example, is closely intertwined with the approach of decolonialism. In particular, in the case of wearing religious clothing, the choice of whether or not to wear such attire should be left to the women who are required to wear it, not to human rights defenders or arbitrators from other countries or institutions who can decide for the women that wearing religious clothing violates their rights.This research focuses on human rights, particularly freedom of religion, which is partly perceived through the Western, European-American vision of human rights. On the contrary, the abovementioned critical approaches present a new vision of established international legal provisions. It should be emphasized that critical does not mean negative. Through such critical thinking, the law has an opportunity to evolve and become more attuned to specific concepts or ideas. The view from within a particular societal group allows to provide a more objective understanding and interpretation of the human right to freedom of religion or belief.