THE TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
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Issue: Delivery of Social Services by churches, religious
organizations; Separation of Church and State; International Human Rights
Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
For: United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs,
Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society
Review: “Obama Seeks Bigger Role for Religious Groups”, New York Times, by Jeff Zeleny and
Michael Luo,
President Obama announced his White House Council for
Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on Thursday 6 February 2009 to
oversee his campaign pledge for a bigger role in the use of churches and
religious organizations in the delivery of social services to the poor. There
are critics and questions of this approach (July 2 article) about hiring
policies, civil rights and civil liberties, and issues of the Separation of Church
and State.
What has not been raised so far in the Obama approach
is the relationship of
In 1998 a U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of
Religion or Belief visited the
In 2008 the U.N. General Assembly instructed the U.N.
Human Rights Council to launch a new program called the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) on the human rights obligations and responsibilities of all U.N.
Member States. Each State has a date assigned to them between 2008 and 2011 to
review their progress before the U.N. Human Rights Council in
The United States
Universal Periodic Review will be held in December 2010.
Preparation of the United States National Report for
the Universal Periodic Review in 2010 is an opportunity for the Obama
administration to report on the link between local delivery of Social Services
by churches and religious organizations; national issues on Separation of
Church and State; and obligations to international Human Rights Standards on
Freedom of Religion or Belief.
President Obama in his inaugural address said; “We
know that our patchwork heritage is strength, not a weakness. We are a nation
of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. In his first
interview with an Arab-Muslim television station, Al Arabiya from
As we are all painfully
aware, religious conflict continues to escalate worldwide whether in the
United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon, at the Alliance of Civilizations Madrid Forum said; never
in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and
committed dialogue, among individuals, among communities, among cultures, among
and between nations.” Another writer in a different setting said, the warning
signs are clear: unless we establish genuine dialogue within and among all
kinds of belief, ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism,
the conflicts of the future will probably be even more deadly.
Did God create us or did
we create God? This question calls for inclusive and genuine dialogue,
respectful and thoughtful responses, discussion of taboos and clarity by
persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive and genuine is dialogue between people of
theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as
well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. These UN
categories embodied in international law to promote tolerance and prevent
discrimination based on religion or belief.
Inclusive and genuine
dialogue is essential as a first step in recognition of the inherent dignity,
equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, and a
foundation for freedom, justice and peace in the world. Leaders of religious
and non-religious beliefs sanction the truth claims of their own traditions.
They are the key to raising awareness and acceptance of the value of holding
truth claims in tandem with human rights standards on freedom of religion or
belief.
During the primaries President Obama proclaimed his
intention to be “an instrument of God” and create “a kingdom right here on
earth.” Candidate Obama, as a Christian, said the use of churches and religious
organizations for delivery of services to the poor would be the “moral center”
of his administration. The challenge is to reconcile international human rights
standards on freedom of religion or belief as a “moral center” with all
religious and non-religious beliefs.
The programs of the White House Council of Faith-Based
and Neighborhood Partnerships should include ways to implement Article 18 of
the ICCPR and the 1998 mandate of the 1981 U.N. Declaration. Preparation of the
United States National Report for the Universal Periodic Review in 2010 is an
opportunity for the Obama administration to propose ways of doing this by
linking local, national and international human rights standards on freedom of
religion or belief.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Link: New York Times story: “Obama Seeks Bigger Role
for Religious Groups
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Link: Leaders Say Obama Has Tapped Pastor for Outreach Office, New
York Times, Laurie Goodstein, 29 January 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29faith.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Excerpts: Excerpts are presented under the Eight Articles of
the 1981 U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Examples of extracts are presented
prior to an Issue Statement for each Review.
1. 3 Freedom to manifest one’s
religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by
law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, morals or the
fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
7. 1 The rights and freedoms set
forth in the present Declaration shall be accorded in national legislation in
such a manner that everyone shall be able to avail himself of such rights and
freedoms in practice.
“OBAMA SEEKS BIGGER ROLE FOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS”
Senator Barack Obama said Tuesday that if elected
president he would expand the delivery of social services through churches and
other religious organizations, vowing to achieve a goal he said President Bush
had fallen short on during his two terms. “The challenges we face today – from
saving our planet to ending poverty – are simply too big to solve alone,” Mr.
Obama said outside a community center here. “We need an all-hands-on-deck
approach.”
But Mr. Obama’s plan pointedly departed from the
Bush administration’s stance on one fundamental issue: whether religious
organizations that get federal money for social services can take faith into
account in their hiring. Mr. Bush has said yes and Mr. Obama no. “If you get a
federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you
help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire –
on the basis of their religion,” Mr. Obama said. “Federal dollars that go
directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular
programs.
Early in his first term, Mr. Bush issue executive
orders expressly allowing religion-based groups receiving federal money to
consider religion in their employment decisions, although confusion often
remains in this area because of conflicting federal, state and local laws. “For
those of us who believe in protecting the integrity of our religious
institutions, this is a fundamental right,” said Richard Czik, vice president
for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals.
“If you can’t hire people within your faith
community, then you’ve lost the distinctive that is the reason why faith-based
programs exist in the first place,” said Richard Land, head of the public
policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Mr. Obama’s plan – his campaign said it would be
the “moral center” of his administration – was unfurled against a backdrop
freighted with electoral ramifications…If elected, Mr. Obama said, he would
call for a pre-inauguration review of all executive orders pertaining to the
religion-based program, particularly those dealing with hiring. In one example
of how he would use the approach to carry out a policy goal, Mr. Obama proposed
$500 million per year to provide summer education for one million poor
children, with a goal of closing the achievement gaps between wealthy students
and poorer ones.
But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized Mr. Obama’s
support of a program that Mr. Lynn said had undermined civil liberties and
civil rights. “I am disappointed that any presidential candidate would want to
continue a failed policy of the Bush administration,” Mr. Lynn said. “It ought
to be shut down, not continued.”
David Kuo, who was deputy director of the Office
of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under Mr. Bush… eventually grew
disenchanted and left when the Bush administration made religion-based
initiatives part of the domestic policy structure…Mr Kuo, who has criticized
the Bush effort as getting bogged down in partisan politics, was asked by the
Obama campaign to review its proposal.
“I think it is a bold, smart, engaging attempt to
use religious organizations to help the poor and to do for the faith community
what the Bush administration could not,” Mr. Kuo said. “But I’m concerned that
his position on hiring rights will bog down this initiative just like Bush’s
position on the other side did the same thing.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________
“LEADERS SAY OBAMA HAS TAPPED PASTOR FOR OUTREACH OFFICE”
President Obama plans to name Joshua
DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal pastor and political strategist who handled
religious outreach for the Obama campaign, to direct a revamped office of faith-based initiatives,
according to religious leaders who have been informed about the choice.
The office, created by
President George W. Bush by executive
order at the start of his first term, is likely to have an even broader mandate
in the Obama White House, said the religious leaders, who requested anonymity
because the appointment has yet to be announced.
The White House declined
to comment.
Renamed the Council for
Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the office will not merely oversee
the distribution of grants to religious and community groups, but will also
look for other ways to involve those groups in working on pressing social
problems.
Mr. DuBois received a
master’s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public
and International Affairs at Princeton University, and
was enrolled in law school when he left to work for Mr. Obama, then a senator.
“I’ve been very impressed
with this young man,” said John J. Dilulio Jr., a professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, who was the first person appointed to this job by Mr. Bush
and who soon left in frustration.
Mr. Dilulio was tapped by
Mr. DuBois for advice on the religion-based initiative last year and through
the transition process.
“He is smart. He is calm.
He is steady,” Mr. Dilulio said of Mr. DuBois, “and I think he’s very close to
the new president. He’d be a good guy to do it.”
On Capitol Hill, Mr.
DuBois was part of a Democratic working group focused on building relationships
with religious leaders, especially evangelical Christians alienated by the
Republican record on economic inequality, foreign policy and environmental
matters. Mr. DuBois expanded that outreach during the presidential campaign by
convening house parties of religious voters across the country to present Mr.
Obama as a man motivated by his faith.
The most contentious issue
that Mr. DuBois will have to help resolve is whether Mr. Obama should rescind a
Bush administration legal memorandum that allows religious groups that receive
government money to hire only those who share their faith.
Mr. Obama said in a
campaign speech last June, “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that
grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate
against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their
religion.”
Mr. DuBois led an effort
during the transition to consult with dozens of religious and charity groups
about the work of the faith-based office, including what to do about the hiring
question, and whether the faith-based centers that Mr. Bush inserted into 12
federal agencies should all be preserved.
ISSUE STATEMENT:
International
Human Rights Standards on Freedom or Religion or Belief are international law
and universal codes of conduct for peaceful cooperation, respectful competition
and resolution of conflicts. The standards are a platform for inclusive and
genuine dialogue on core principles and values within and among nations, all
religions and other beliefs.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Documents Attached:
USA Preparation for Universal Periodic Review in 2010
USA Separation of Church & State - Principles & Programs
2009 Report to the UN Human Rights Council by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
STANDARDS: http://www.tandemproject.com/program/81_dec.htm
The Tandem Project: a non-governmental organization founded
in 1986 to build understanding, tolerance and respect for diversity, and to
prevent discrimination in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief.
The Tandem Project, a non-profit NGO, has sponsored multiple conferences,
curricula, reference materials and programs on Article 18 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and 1981 United Nations
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination
Based on Religion or Belief.
The Tandem Project
initiative is the result of a co-founder representing the World Federation of
United Nations Associations at the United Nations Geneva Seminar, Encouragement of Understanding, Tolerance
and Respect in Matters Relating to Freedom of Religion or Belief,
called by the UN Secretariat in 1984 on ways to implement the 1981 UN
Declaration. In 1986, The Tandem Project organized the first NGO International
Conference on the 1981 UN Declaration.
The Tandem Project
Executive Director is: Michael M. Roan, mroan@tandemproject.com.
The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in
Special Consultative Status with the
Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations
Challenge: to reconcile international human rights
standards on freedom of religion or belief with the truth claims of religious
and non-religious beliefs.
United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon, at the Alliance of Civilizations Madrid Forum said; never
in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and
committed dialogue, among individuals, among communities, among cultures, among
and between nations. Another writer in different setting said; the warning
signs are clear, unless we establish genuine dialogue within and among all
kinds of belief, ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism,
the conflicts of the future will probably be even more deadly.
Did God create us or did
we create God? This question calls for inclusive and genuine dialogue,
discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive and
genuine is dialogue between people of theistic, non-theistic and
atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.
These UN categories are embodied in international law to promote tolerance and
prevent discrimination based on religion or belief.
Inclusive and genuine
dialogue is essential as a first step in recognition of the inherent dignity,
equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, and a
foundation for freedom, justice and peace in the world. Leaders of religious
and non-religious beliefs sanction the truth claims of their own traditions.
They are a key to raising awareness and acceptance of the value of holding
truth claims in tandem with human rights standards on freedom of religion or
belief.
_____________________________________________
Goal: To eliminate all forms of intolerance and
discrimination based on religion or belief.
To build understanding
and support for Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights –Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion - and the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Encourage the
United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media and
Civil Society to use International Human Rights Standards on Freedom of
Religion or Belief as essential for long-term solutions
to conflicts in all matters relating to religion or belief.
Objectives:
1. Use International
Human Rights Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief as a platform for
genuine dialogue on the core principles and values within and among nations,
all religions and other beliefs.
2. Adapt these human
rights standards to early childhood education, teaching children, from the very
beginning, that their own religion is one out of many and that it is a personal
choice for everyone to adhere to the religion or belief by which he or she
feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion or belief at all.1
History: In 1968 the United Nations deferred work on an
International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Religious
Intolerance, because of its apparent complexity and sensitivity. In the
twenty-first century, a dramatic increase of intolerance and discrimination on
grounds of religion or belief is motivating a worldwide search to find
solutions to these problems. This is a challenge calling for enhanced dialogue
by States and others; including consideration of an International Convention on
Freedom of Religion or Belief for protection of and accountability by all
religions or beliefs. The tensions in today’s world inspire a question such as:
Should the United Nations
adopt an International Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief?
Response: Is it the appropriate moment to
reinitiate the drafting of a legally binding international convention on freedom
of religion or belief? Law making of this nature requires a minimum consensus
and an environment that appeals to reason rather than emotions. At the same
time we are on a learning curve as the various dimensions of the Declaration
are being explored. Many academics have produced voluminous books on these
questions but more ground has to be prepared before setting up of a UN working
group on drafting a convention. In my opinion, we should not try to rush the
elaboration of a Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief, especially not in
times of high tensions and unpreparedness. - UN Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Religion or Belief,
Option: After forty years this may be the time,
however complex and sensitive, for the United Nations Human Rights Council to
appoint an Open-ended Working Group to draft a United Nations Convention on
Freedom of Religion or Belief. The mandate for an Open-ended Working Group
ought to assure nothing in a draft Convention will be construed as restricting
or derogating from any right defined in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and the 1981 UN
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
Separation of Religion or Belief
and State
Concept: Separation of Religion or Belief and State - SOROBAS. The First Preamble to the 1948 United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads; “Whereas
recognition of the inherent
dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human
family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. This concept
suggests States recalling their history, culture and constitution adopt fair
and equal human rights protection for all religions or beliefs as described in
General Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, UN Human Rights Committee,
Article
18: protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not
to profess any religion or belief.
The terms belief and religion are to be broadly construed. Article 18 is not
limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions and beliefs
with international characteristics or practices analogous to those of
traditional religions. The Committee therefore views with concern any tendency
to discriminate against any religion or belief for any reasons, including the
fact that they are newly established, or represent religious minorities that
may be the subject of hostility by a predominant religious community.
Article
18: permits
restrictions to manifest a religion or belief only if such limitations are
prescribed by law and necessary to protect public safety, order, health or
morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
Dialogue: International Human Rights Standards on
Freedom or Religion or Belief are international law and universal codes of
conduct for peaceful cooperation, respectful competition and resolution of
conflicts. The standards are a platform for genuine dialogue on core principles
and values within and among nations, all religions and other beliefs.
Education: Ambassador
1981 U.N. Declaration on
Freedom of Religion or Belief
5.2: Every child shall enjoy the right to have access
to education in the matter of religion or belief in accordance with the wishes
of his parents, and shall not be compelled to receive teaching on religion or
belief against the wishes of his parents, the best interests of the child being
the guiding principle.” With International Human Rights safeguards, early
childhood education is the best time to begin to build tolerance, understanding
and respect for freedom of religion or belief.
5.3: The child shall be protected from any form of
discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief. He shall be brought up in
a spirit of understanding, tolerance, and friendship among peoples, peace and
universal brotherhood, respect for the freedom of religion or belief of others
and in full consciousness that his energy and talents should be devoted to the
service of his fellow men.