Religious freedom and equality rights, and their contentious implementation

Abstract

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in December 1948 attempts have been made to implement basic human rights of religious equality and freedom in specific national contexts. Focusing on Europe, our chapter discusses three distinct types of conflicts that have emerged during this process of national adaption and modification: (1) inconsistencies between the UDHR and national constitutions in European countries; (2) contradiction between global human rights’ universalism and the particularism of state religions which implicitly or explicitly support a specific set of religious beliefs and practices; and (3) conflicts between religious freedom and equality rights and other individual and collective civil rights, for example, non-discrimination of women or the physical integrity of children.