THE TANDEM PROJECT
UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF
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Issue:
For: United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs,
Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society
Review: Considering Resolution to Ban Burqa and Niqab, Earth News, 19 June 2009; Sarkozy Backs Drive to Eliminate the Burqa, Doreen Carvajal,
New York Times, 23 June 2009; Mission to France (18-29
September 2005); Report (E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.4) by
The Tandem Project
mission is education, progress assessment and advocacy for International Human
Rights Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief. These human rights norms and
standards promote and protect diversity of cultures, religions and other
beliefs. In 1968 the United Nations deferred work on an International
Convention on Religious Intolerance because of its complexity and sensitivity: United Nations History –
Freedom of Religion or Belief
Violence, suffering and
discrimination based on religion or belief in many parts of the world is greater
than ever. It is time for the UN
Human Rights Council to appoint an Open-ended Working Group as a spotlight for
world attention on drafting what was deferred in 1968, a comprehensive
international core human rights treaty - a United Nations Convention on Freedom
of Religion or Belief - as a guide for peaceful cooperation, respectful
competition and resolution of conflicts.
Thee three articles below are on a clash of cultures,
values and politics over religious dress. This is one issue, among many, which
reflects a need for a mechanism such as an open-ended working group, to focus
human rights conversations on a range of issues in all matters relating to
religion or belief. Excerpts from the three articles are followed by reports:
Excerpts from: Considering Resolution to Ban
Burqa and Niqab,
Earth News,
“Five years after
“The controversy over the 2004 law abolishing
headscarves in French public schools has more or less faded away. But on June
6, at a joint press conference by U.S. President Barrack Obama and his French
counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, it led to an awkward moment. Asked how he felt
about the French law, Obama said, “I won’t take responsibility for how other
countries are going to approach this. I will tell you that in the
“In September, a law-maker from the ruling UMP party,
Jacques Myard, tabled a bill outlawing the Burqa. No action has yet been taken
on it…this may also be the fate of the resolution, because it is one thing to
legislate what pupils may wear in public schools and quite another matter to
ordain what an adult can wear in the streets…Everyone is free in the streets,
Immigration Minister Eric Besso cautioned. To interfere with this balance seems
risky to me.”
Excerpts from: Sarkozy
“Speaking at the
“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue. It
is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said. The burqa
is not a religious sign. It is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of
women…To enthusiastic applause, he said, I want to say solemnly that it will
not be welcome on our territory.”
“
“Mr. Sarkozy said that “in the republic, the Muslim
religion must be respected like other religions,” But he declared, the burqa is
not welcome in
“The president gave his support to a cross-party
initiative by about 60 legislators who proposed that a parliamentary commission
study the burqa and methods to combat its spread.”
Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of
“When we meet women who wear it, we try to educate
them, and explain to them that moderation is a better choice,” he said. “We’d
rather not have a commission on the subject,” Mr. Moussaoui said. “But if it
was created, we will stay vigilant that French Muslims are not stigmatized,
that the president’s words are respected.”
Excerpts from:
“According to many interlocutors, the reasons behind
this legislation go beyond the application of the principle of the separation
of Church and State. This legislation is also illustrative of the relation
between the
“Finally, at a meeting with members of staff of the
office of the Minister of National Education, the Special Rapporteur was told
that the wearing of religious symbols in schools hurt the freedom of conscious
of the other children. She was concerned about the intolerant nature of such
arguments.”
“The adoption of the law is also said to have
radicalized a fraction of the Muslim youth and has been systematically used in
the banlieues and Mosque to disseminate a
message of religious radicalism. Some critics of the new law argue that it may have
been among the different elements explaining the widespread violence and riots
that erupted all around
“Another religious minority that has been seriously affected
by adoption of the law is the Sikh community. Their members reported to the
Special Rapporteur that displaying religious symbols was an essential part of
their faith. They described the painful experiences they endured when their
children had to cut their hair, as a result of the rigid application of the law
by some educational institutions.”
“Paragraph 3 of article 18 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for certain such limitations
under restrictive conditions. General Comment No. 22 (1993) of the Human Rights
Committee emphasizes that paragraph 3 of Article 18…is to be strictly
interpreted: restrictions are not allowed on grounds not specified there, even
if they would be allowed as restrictions to other rights protected in the
Covenant, such as national security. Limitations may be applied only for those
purposes for which they were prescribed and must be directly related and
proportionate to the specific need on which they are predicated…So far, there
has not been an assessment of the compatibility of this legislation with
relevant international standards protecting the right to freedom of religion or
belief by a judicial or quasi-judicial international human rights body.”
“The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or
belief was impressed by the expertise that exists in
Excerpts from: Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, and 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.
1. 1 Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include
freedom to have a religion or whatever belief of his choice, and freedom,
either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practices and teaching.
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.
6. 3 To make, acquire and use
to an adequate extent the necessary articles and materials related to the rites
and customs of a religion or belief;
SARKOZY
BACKS DRIVE TO ELIMINATE BURQA
Excerpts from: Sarkozy Backs Drive to
Eliminate the Burqa, by Doreen Carvajal, New York Times
Speaking at the
“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue.
It is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said. The
burqa is not a religious sign. It is a sign of the subjugation, of the
submission of women…To enthusiastic applause, he said, I want to say solemnly
that it will not be welcome on our territory.”
Mr. Sarkozy gave his speech in a wide-ranging
address, in the first presidential appearance since Charles Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte’s in the 19 century. Presidents had been barred from
entering Parliament since 1875, to protect the independence of lawmakers. But
reforms carried out last summer through Mr. Sarkozy’s party opened the way for
him to speak to Parliament.
France has the largest Muslim population in
Western Europe, estimated at five million, and traditional Islamic garments
have been a divisive issue, especially since 2004, when the country passed
legislation prohibiting head scarves and conspicuous religious symbols from
public schools.
Mr. Sarkozy said that “in the republic, the Muslim
religion must be respected like other religions,” But he declared, “the burqa
is not welcome in
The president gave his support to a cross-party
initiative by about 60 legislators who proposed that a parliamentary commission
study the burqa and methods to combat its spread.
Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of France’s
Representative Muslim Council, said he agreed with Mr. Sarkozy’s position on
burqas, calling them “an extremely marginal phenomenon.” He said his group
promoted a moderate version of Islam.
“When we meet women who wear it, we try to educate
them, and explain to them that moderation is a better choice,” he said. “We’d
rather not have a commission on the subject,” Mr. Moussaoui said. “But if it
was created, we will stay vigilant that French Muslims are not stigmatized,
that the president’s words are respected.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
WEARING
OF THE BURQA AND NIQAB
EARTH
NEWS – 19 June 2009: Paris, France - Five years after France prohibited the wearing of the
Islamic headscarf in public schools, a movement is gathering momentum here for
a more radical measure: outlawing the wearing of the burqa in public. Earlier
this month, a group of 58 law-makers introduced a parliamentary resolution
calling for the creation of a committee of inquiry into the wearing of the burqa
and niqab on French territory.
A burqa is the most concealing of all Islamic veils as it covers the entire
face and body, leaving only a mesh screen to see through. The niqab is a face
veil that sometimes leaves the eyes clear and is sometimes worn with a separate
eye veil.
Government spokesman Luc Chatel said Friday that a law against wearing the
burqa was a serious option.
"If we see, very clearly, that wearing the burqa is contrary to republican
principles, the government, the Parliament will draw all the necessary
conclusions," he told
Asked if that meant a law prohibiting the garment, he replied, "Why
not."
Junior Secretary for Urban Affairs Fadela Amara was more direct. "I am in
favour of prohibition" of the burqa," she told
And Socialist parliamentarian Christian Bataille, one of the signatories to the
resolution, declared, "We have to put a stop to this phenomenon, which reflects
the growth of Moslem fundamentalism."
According to its wording, the resolution's authors believe that the wearing of
the burqa represents "an attack on the dignity of women," because
when a woman wears it "her very existence is repudiated."
The resolution further declares: "The sight of these imprisoned women is
intolerable for us when they come from
The parliamentarians also affirm that "this degrading clothing"
represents both a wife's "submission to her spouse, to the men of the
family" and "a negation of her citizenship."
The controversy over the 2004 law abolishing headscarves in French public
schools has more or less faded away. But on June 6, at a joint press conference
by US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, it
led to an awkward moment.
Asked how he felt about the French law, Obama said, "I won't take
responsibility for how other countries are going to approach this. I will tell
you that in the
A law that bans the wearing of religious clothing in public is going to be far
more controversial.
In answering Obama on June 6, Sarkozy said that women could wear the headscarf
in public "provided that's a decision she made freely and had not been
forced on her by her family or entourage."
But such a constraint is always difficult to prove, especially if the women
maintain that they wear the clothing of their own free will.
A 22-year-old woman named Sonia, who began wearing the burqa in January, told
the daily Le Parisien, "Before, I didn't even wear a headscarf. I made my
A-levels and I worked a bit. And then I truly encountered religion... I can not
imagine dressing otherwise. It is my choice alone."
Although no data are available on the number of women living in France who wear
the garment, politicians are reacting now because the custom appears to be
spreading, particularly among young women like Sonia, who live in poor suburban
ghetto neighborhoods.
But the movement against the wearing of the burqa has been slowly gathering
force in
In June 2008, the Council of State - the country's highest administrative court
- refused to grant French citizenship to a Moroccan woman wearing a burqa,
because it went against "the values of a democratic society and the
principle of equality of the sexes."
In October of last year,
The justification for this decision was that it was necessary for "the
instructor to observe the faces of the pupils in order to see their expressions
while forming the words."
In September, a law-maker from the ruling UMP party, Jacques Myard, tabled a
bill outlawing the burqa. No action has yet been taken on it.
This may also be the fate of the resolution, because it is one thing to
legislate what pupils may wear in public schools and quite another matter to
ordain what an adult can wear in the streets.
"Everyone is free in the streets," Immigration Minister Eric Besso
cautioned. "To interfere with this balance seems risky to me."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
(18-29
September 2005)
Excerpts from: Report submitted by
This report was submitted four years ago by the UN
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to the Commission on Human
Rights, the predecessor of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The section
of her report VI: Religious Symbols in Public Schools includes; Background; The
Reasons Behind and Arguments Supporting the Law; Consequences of the
Implementation of the Law; Human Rights Law; The Current Situation. These are
excerpts from the seven page section of the report. The paragraphs are numbered
as required for all UN human rights reports. The full report is available at:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/117/19/PDF/G0611719.pdf?OpenElement
47. Since the beginning of the
school year 2004/05, in application of Law 2004-228 of
51. Law 2004-228 which amended
the Education Act was adopted by a large majority in the National Assembly and
across party lines. In its article 1, it provides that in public elementary
schools, middle schools (colleges) and secondary schools (lycees), wearing
symbols or clothing by which students ostentatiously show a religious identity
is prohibited.
School rules are to stipulate that any disciplinary
procedure must be preceded by dialogue with the student.
53. According to many
interlocutors, the reasons behind this legislation go beyond the application of
the principle of the separation of Church and State. This legislation is also
illustrative of the relation between the
60. Finally, at a meeting with
members of staff of the office of the Minister of National Education, the
Special Rapporteur was told that the wearing of religious symbols in schools
hurt the freedom of conscious of the other children. She was concerned about
the intolerant nature of such arguments.
64. The adoption of the law is
also said to have radicalized a fraction of the Muslim youth and has been
systematically used in the banlieues and
Mosque to disseminate a message of religious radicalism. Some critics of the
new law argue that it may have been among the different elements explaining the
widespread violence and riots that erupted all around
66. Another religious minority
that has been seriously affected by adoption of the law is the Sikh community.
Their members reported to the Special Rapporteur that displaying religious
symbols was an essential part of their faith. They described the painful
experiences they endured when their children had to cut their hair, as a result
of the rigid application of the law by some educational institutions.
70. Paragraph 3 of article 18
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for
certain such limitations under restrictive conditions. General Comment No. 22
(1993) of the Human Rights Committee emphasizes that paragraph 3 of Article
18…is to be strictly interpreted: restrictions are not allowed on grounds not
specified there, even if they would be allowed as restrictions to other rights
protected in the Covenant, such as national security. Limitations may be
applied only for those purposes for which they were prescribed and must be
directly related and proportionate to the specific need on which they are
predicated…So far, there has not been an assessment of the compatibility of
this legislation with relevant international standards protecting the right to
freedom of religion or belief by a judicial or quasi-judicial international
human rights body.
94. The Special Rapporteur on
freedom of religion or belief was impressed by the expertise that exists in
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
ISSUE & REVIEW: FOLLOW-UP
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.”
Genuine dialogue on human
rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse,
discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive
dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and
atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.
The warning signs are clear, unless there is genuine dialogue ranging from
religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism; conflicts in the future will
probably be even more deadly.
In 1968 the UN deferred
work on an International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Religious Intolerance because of its complexity and sensitivity. Violence,
suffering and discrimination based on religion or belief in many parts of the
world is greater than ever. It is time for
a UN Working Group to draft what they deferred in 1968, a comprehensive core
international human rights treaty-a United Nations Convention on Freedom of
Religion or Belief: United
Nations History – Freedom of Religion or Belief
The challenge to
religions or beliefs at all levels is awareness, understanding
and acceptance of international human rights standards on freedom of
religion or belief. Leaders, teachers and followers of all religions or
beliefs, with governments, are keys to test the viability of inclusive and
genuine dialogue in response to the UN Secretary General’s urgent call for
constructive and committed dialogue.
The Tandem Project title,
Separation of Religion or Belief and State
(SOROBAS), reflects the far-reaching scope of UN General Comment 22
on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human
Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4). The General Comment on Article 18 is
a guide on the rule of human rights law for peaceful cooperation, respectful
competition and resolution of conflicts: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument
Surely one of the best
hopes for humankind is to embrace a culture in which religions and other
beliefs accept one another, in which wars and violence are not tolerated in the
name of an exclusive right to truth, in which children are raised to solve
conflicts with mediation, compassion and understanding.
We welcome ideas on how this can be accomplished; info@tandemproject.com.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE TANDEM PROJECT PROPOSALS
Proposals for constructive, long-term solutions to conflicts based on
religion or belief:
(1) Develop a model
local-national-international integrated approach to human rights and freedom of
religion or belief, appropriate to the cultures of each country, as follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review. See
Documents Attached:
France Considers Ban on Burqa in Public
France - Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief
STANDARDS: http://www.tandemproject.com/program/81_dec.htm
1:
2: Mr.
The Tandem Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO)
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 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: info@tandemproject.com.
The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in
Special Consultative Status with the
Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations