Secular Human Rights Research Articles

Analyzing Thailand’s Amendments to the Civil and Commercial Code on Marriage Equality: Progress, Shortcomings, and the Struggle for LGBTIQAN+ Rights to Family Establishment

Thailand’s proposed amendment of the Civil and Commercial Code (“CCC”) on marriage equality, recently passed by the lower house of Parliament on 27 March 2024, marks a historic milestone and represents a significant step towards recognizing the rights of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex Queer Asexual and Non-Binary+ (LGBTIQAN+) individuals to establish families. This commentary article critically examines the draft legislation through the lens of international human rights law and domestic constitutional principles of equality and human dignity. Situating the Act within Thailand’s international obligations, the article traces the legislative history and highlights the progressive vision of the Civil Society Draft, which developed from the thesis-based research of Chawinroj Teerapatcharaporn, School of Law, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). It commends the shift towards gender-neutral language in marriage eligibility while critiquing the retention of binary “father/mother” terminology as falling short of genuine inclusivity. Drawing from parliamentary debates, the commentary engages with objections raised by religious party MPs, countering them by reasserting the primacy of constitutional equality and secular human rights principles over religious precepts in civil law matters. The article concludes by assessing the Act’s potential impact and the ongoing struggle for fully realizing LGBTIQAN+ family rights, calling for further reform that embraces gender neutrality and equality regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

Islam and the Issue of Human Rights: Compatibility or Contradiction

Since the Islamic resurgence in early 1970s, there has been a great deal of interest in the ontology of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its consistency with Islam. Ever since its foundation, the notion of human rights have long been the source of continuous contention between modern Muslim and Western intelligentsia. This paper begins with a brief introduction of Islam and the concept of human rights. The primary focus of the paper is to present a better understanding of Islamic law concerning with human rights and to examine the difference between the secular human rights and Islamic human rights. The paper will argue that the human rights in Muslim world have always been explicitly grounded in religious terms. Moreover, the paper also aims to highlight and understand the rationale why Muslim countries in particular are reluctant to accept or ratify the international covenant on human rights. Notwithstanding that, the purpose of this paper is threefold; (1) to present the human rights concept in Islam; (2) to highlight major differences between the principles of Islamic law and modern human rights notion; (3) to present the rationale behind the major disparities between Islam and the established standard of human rights.

Juridical Overview of the Prohibition of Interfaith Marriage from the Perspective of Human Rights and Criminal Law in Indonesia


 
 
 
 Indonesia is a country that is famous for its multiculturalism, one of which is religion. Consequently, in living their lives, Indonesian people are faced with differences in various things, ranging from culture, way of life and interactions between individuals. The concern of the government and other components of the nation is the issue of inter-religious relations. One of the problems in inter-religious relations is the issue of mixed marriages (inter-religious marriages), which in this article are referred to as “interfaith marriages”. The condition of the pluralistic Indonesian society makes the association in society wider and more diverse. This has resulted in a more dynamic shift in religious values ​​than what happened in the past. In fact, interfaith marriages in Indonesia are not justified based on positive national law that applies in the territory of Indonesia. It can be concluded that if the State legalizes interfaith marriages in Indonesia, the State is tantamount to violating the existing religious laws in Indonesia, and violating Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution which guarantees every citizen to embrace religion and worship according to their religion and belief, while Each religion has different procedures for marriage or worship. The view of human rights in Indonesia should refer more to the human rights arrangements contained in the 1945 Constitution, not to the UDHR which we ourselves do not know who made it and even what the agenda is for a country that is still very religious. Human rights in Indonesia, not secular human rights, which separate religion from the state, which legalize all means in the name of "human rights", this clearly contradicts the first principle of Pancasila, and this does not enter into the identity of the Indonesian nation. In this article, interfaith marriage will also be studied from the perspective of criminal law regarding its legality.
 
 
 

“I Will Throw All on the Altar”: Christianity, Hinduism, and “Human Rights” in Jane Eyre

Through an analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre and her essay “Sacrifice of an Indian Widow”, this essay argues that Brontë positions Christianity as the necessary precursor for the development of secular human rights, and that in so doing she categorically excludes Hinduism from access to similar developmental possibilities. By ventriloquizing an Indian widow in Jane’s speaking voice, Brontë elides the difference of identity between them and posits Jane’s Christian emancipation as a putatively “universal” model for the emancipation of women. This sleight of hand strips the ventriloquized Indian widow of the religious and cultural particularity of her circumstances and precludes the possibility of enfranchisement within her own religious tradition. By tracing Brontë’s exclusion of Hinduism, this argument attempts to render visible the early influence of Christianity on the development of “human rights” discourse. In positing it, I hope to interrogate the Western tendency to treat “human rights” as a “universal” and therefore politically neutral discourse, ignoring the ways in which it has been conditioned by its emergence in a Western and Christian cultural context.

Methodist Morals: Social Principles and the Public Church's Witness

Darryl Stephens, Director of Methodist Studies at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, has written an excellent study of the United Methodist Church's Social Principles as ‘an authentic voice of Methodism, a church faithfully proclaiming its witness in the world’ (9). This positive evaluation of Social Principles is made in full recognition of the complex and often controversial process by which the Social Principles have developed and changed, as well as the need for substantial improvement that he recommends.The first chapter, ‘Heir to the Social Creed’, traces the historical antecedents of Social Principles in the documents and decisions of the United Methodist Church's (UMC) predecessor denominations. This provides the background for a detailed study of the composition and development of the Social Principles in the second chapter. Stephens emphasizes the importance of the process of moral decision-making over against the text that is produced. Even when this process is often fraught with tension and political manoeuvring, it is significant that the UMC engages in wrestling together over its ethical witness to the broader society. He proposes that the result is a set of ‘middle axioms’ that ought to ‘promote dialogue about moral issues upon which faithful Christians may have different opinions’ (48). These differences ought to be a motivation for continued dialogue, learning, and teaching. However, the way some of the statements are worded obscures this.In the third chapter, ‘Politics and Grace’, Stephens analyses how the Social Principles relate to spiritual and moral formation. He notes that historically, Methodists have understood themselves as a holiness movement and their moral statements have been directed toward the church members as a tool for moral formation. The Social Principles are different as they are directed not only to the members of the church but also to the broader society. They are a document of public witness. That does not mean that moral formation is unimportant but for Stephens, this is relocated to the process of discussing, writing, editing, and changing the Social Principles. However, this process is made more complex as it takes the form of democratic decision-making at General Conference and is thus subject to the complex politics of the UMC, where the desire to ensure that a particular opinion becomes part of the Social Principles is often stronger than the desire to participate in a process of spiritual growth through discussion and mutual decision-making.Chapter 4 on ‘Theological and Moral Learning’ describes the theologically ‘thin’ character of the Social Principles and their lack of in-depth engagement with the key theological themes of the Methodist tradition. Rather than providing theological ethical reasoning, the Social Principles make assertions. As the document is revised at each General Conference, these assertions are often the product of particular political processes rather than a carefully integrated theological framework. Importantly, Stephens notes the numerous similarities between the Social Principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, suggesting that its most significant intellectual heritage lies in the secular human rights traditions.The fifth chapter examines various adaptations made by the Central Conferences outside the United States, emphasizing the United States-centric character of the General Conference-approved version. The sixth and seventh chapters deal with the issues around sexuality and marriage—these go beyond the Social Principles to examine how the statements in the Social Principles (and earlier ethical guidelines) were interpreted, turned into church law, and applied in the life of the church. Stephens again notes the lack of a theological ethical framework. The final chapter compares the vision of the public identity and witness of the Church that emerges from the Social Principles with the ecclesiologies of Paul Ramsey and Stanley Hauerwas. A conclusion affirms the Church's engagement with the world.This brief summary does not do justice to the wealth of information to be found in the book, in particular the detailed historical work on the text of the Social Principles and other ethical texts. The book challenges the UMC in four ways. The first is a broad challenge of what is the character of the Church's public ethical witness. The second is the importance of the process of dialogue in forming that witness. The third is tension between internationally applicable principles and the realities of diverse contexts. The fourth, and to my mind most significant challenge, is how our Methodist theological tradition should inform and shape our ethical decisions. Some of these issues are addressed in the revised Social Principles to be put to the 2021 General Conference. Whether they have succeeded would require another book.

Isu-Isu Aktual Dalam Al-Qur’an: Ham Dalam Perspektif Al –Quran

It was the confusion of secular human rights that prompted Muslim thinkers who joined European Islamic organizations to declare The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (UIDHR), at the 1980 International Islamic Conference in Paris. However, the declaration of Islamic human rights, which is very similar to secular human rights, also fails at the implementation level. If we return to the Qur'an and hadith, especially the Medina constitution in the context of human rights, there are many verses of the Qur'an which, without going through interpretation, are very in favor of human rights. Human rights principles in the Qur'an can be described in three terms, namely al-istiqrar, namely the right to live on earth until death picks up, al-istimta', namely the right to explore the carrying capacity of life and al-karamah, namely honor. which is identical to each individual but has social implications, because self-respect can only work if there are other people who respect one's human dignity, then al-karamah gives birth to the right of equality.

Religious Freedom in a Secular Human Rights Order

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the problems associated with conceptualizing religious freedom within a human rights order that remains indebted to secular principles. It considers the theological-political premises of the modern secular State, the function of religious tolerance as a liberal-democratic discourse, how political subjectivity is constructed through the concepts of freedom and equality, and the inequality inherent in the secular vehicle of the neutral public sphere. It suggests that the potential for human rights law to protect religious difference lies in understanding the theological-political bias in secularism and renegotiating the relationship between religious pluralism and democratic principles.

Religious vs. secular human rights organizations: Discourse, framing, and action

The study of human rights is dominated by secular voices; however, increasingly the study of international relations recognizes the tension and interplay between the religious and the secular, and the impetus for human rights work has often come from a religious or moral foundation. Although understudied, religious NGOs and religious beliefs and universal ethics have long shaped discourses on human rights in the United Nations. This article explores the ways in which religious and secular human rights organizations frame, discuss, legitimize, and operationalize human rights issues and priorities. Through document analysis and interviews with members of international human rights organizations, the authors trace the similarities and differences between the organizations, their missions and focus, their conceptions of human rights, and their rationale for engaging in the field for the purpose of better assessing the opportunities and challenges for cooperation between these groups.

THE CONFLUENCE OF ISLAMIC FEMINISM AND PEACEBUILDING: LESSONS FROM BOSNIA

This paper maps the closely intertwined trajectories of Islamic feminism and peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It examines how the socio-political context of the region influenced the emergence of peacebuilding and Islamic feminism, and how secular human rights and feminist organisations provided a fertile ground for female Bosnian activists to practice feminist theology even before they were exposed to the theoretical underpinnings of Islamic feminism. Through examples of notable feminists and human rights activists in the region, as well as projects committed to raising awareness about topics such as gender-equality, peace, and reconciliation, the paper explores the enduring relationship between Islamic feminism and peacebuilding. The language of religion and feminism has proven to be a useful tool for promoting peacebuilding and dialogue within the community, while at the same time secular human rights organisations continue to provide the only space for engagement with Islamic feminism in a patriarchal society.

Syariah as Heterotopia: Responses from Muslim Women in Aceh, Indonesia

In this paper, I argue that the implementation of syariah is best understood as a heterotopia by women in Aceh, Indonesia. The current debates over the role of syariah for women in Acehnese society focus on either a secular human rights critique of non-liberal norms that restrict the rights and freedom of women or a religiously prescribed defense of communal norms that protect women and society. Based on interviews, I identify three variants of how women conceive of and inhabit syariah in Aceh. Two of these variants are underrepresented in the current academic literature on syariah in Aceh. Two key distinctions are drawn between blueprint and iconoclastic utopian thought and state-centric and non-state-centric models of political legitimacy. Rethinking syariah as a “socio-spatial dialectic” allows for all three variants of syariah existing simultaneously as a heterotopia in Acehnese society.

Tunisia's women: partners in revolution

This paper examines gender politics of the Tunisian revolution and the transitional period from 14 January 2011 to the elections on 23 October 2011 within the theoretical framework of revolutionary ‘restoration’. The broader arc of the revolution saw a radical change in Tunisia's gender politics from ‘state-feminist’ ideology of the pre-revolution period to decentralised ‘gender activisms’ of the post-revolutionary period. Revolution, however, also moves towards restorations of social and gender dynamics of the previous political order. The post-revolutionary ‘gender activisms’ sought to restore the justice of foundational moral principles: ‘secular human rights’ or ‘Islamist principles’. The transitional government also restored the gendered hierarchies reminiscent of the nationalist period. The restoration of the foundational principles of the Tunisian state and Third World nationalist discourse signalled the persistence of a gender paradox where Tunisian women's social struggles coexisted within the male-gendered politics. The paper presents accounts of women's marginalisation from the post-revolutionary transitional committees, the transitional governments' ministerial positions and from the media. The interviews show diversity in political opinions and orientations between women from different social classes, religious identifications and from different regions.

Islamic Headscarves, Religious Pluralism, and Secular Human Rights

This paper considers the Article 9 religious freedom jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It opens by looking at recent decisions involving Islam that stand in tension with the Court’s endorsement of normative religious pluralism. It is argued that the inability of the Court to construct a satisfying account of the place of public Islam within a religiously pluralistic order reflects inherent limitations of the liberal tradition of religious freedom. In particular, the Court’s approach to these cases reveals ways in which the category of human rights has become tethered to a normative secularity that cannot ultimately support a vigorous promotion of religious pluralism. This being the case, the challenge confronting the European Court of Human Rights in its treatment of religious pluralism might be understood as not merely jurisprudential but moral, ontological, and finally, theological. That is, the problematic that must be identified and critiqued concerns the deep ways in which law has been formulated in relation to religion within the modern order. With this in mind, the paper turns in its final section to discussing conceptual jurisprudential alternatives. It is revealing that some of the most creative alternatives, particularly addressing the status of Islam, are being advanced by theologians positioned to think about certain elemental matters outside the sphere of normal jurisprudential considerations. As a point of entry into these conversations, the concluding section considers two of the most important recent reflections on this topic by Rowan Williams and John Milbank.

Radical Islam and Human Rights Values: A "Religious-Minded" Critique of Secular Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood

The rise in the twentieth century of Islamism and other movements of politicized religion has raised both practical and theoretical concerns for those espousing the inevitable universalization of modern, secular human rights values. This essay addresses one facet of this complex issue through an examination of two very different twentieth-century critics of modernity: the early postmodern Walter Benjamin and the early Islamist Sayyid Qutb. Each of these critics articulates a particular religious-minded anxiety regarding the secular ethico-political underpinnings of many modern systems of governance; in doing so, they reveal a number of philosophical and practical limitations to the international human rights language of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Such limitations, in turn, help elucidate one of today's most publicized and misunderstood developments within modern Islamism: the systematization and the popularization of an aggressive yet avowedly humanitarian philosophy of religio-political violence.

The possibility of secular human rights: Alan gewirth and the principle of generic consistency

This article explores Alan Gewirth’s argument for a secular foundation for the idea 2 of human rights as a possible response to Michael J. Perry’s claim “that the idea of 3 human rights is…ineliminably religious.” I examine Gewirth’s reasoning for constructing 3 a theory, namely that existing theories are fundamentally flawed and leave the idea of human rights without a logically consistent foundation, before considering in detail his claims for the Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC). Having looked at his critique of numerous other theories, as well as at his own argument about human action grounding basic rights to freedom and well-being, I then offer a critique of Gewirth’s PGC. Ultimately my conclusion is that Gewrith's 3 theory relies too heavily on the notions, first that we have a meta-desire not to contradict ourselves and, second, that we are unable to find persuasive justifications for our behavior that might allow us to avoid self-contradiction. If one is not troubled by charges of self-contradiction or, as is more often the case, one does not recognize that one’s victim is as much a human being as oneself, Gewirth’s theory 5 V 3 will not seem particularly persuasive. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A28BB025 00003

Secular human rights: Challenge and opportunity to Christians and Muslims

Abstract The principle that all human beings should enjoy equal rights of freedom and participation is a specifically modem idea which initially met with resistance from both Christians and Muslims. Even today Christians and Muslims often have difficulties with recognizing the secularistic features of human rights. The profession of the inalienable dignity of every human person, however, can facilitate a critical reconciliation between the emancipatory ethics of human rights on the one hand and the humanitarian traditions of Christianity and Islam on the other.

Secular human rights: A challenge for the churches, a chance for the women

(1996). Secular human rights: A challenge for the churches, a chance for the women. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, pp. 949-957.