Issue Statements are published on Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone has a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, and 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Issue Statements are on substantive topics on religion or belief from multifaceted perspectives. They encourage and support United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media and Civil Society to use international human rights standards as essential for long-term solutions to conflict based on religion or belief.

Issue Statements are released weekly by The Tandem Project to an International List Serve. Each Issue Statement opens with a Review  and Extracts 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. Back Issue Statements are archived and available on The Tandem Project website under Issues at: http://www.tandemproject.com.  

Issue Statements are sent by e-mail to the International List Serve with a complete document attached. Here is a sample of an e-mail Issue Statement:  

THE TANDEM PROJECT
www.tandemproject.com

UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,
FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF

PROSELYTISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE
RIGHT TO TRY TO CONVINCE THE OTHER

Issue:  Conflict resolution relating to missionary activity and propagation of religion or belief.

For: United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society

Release: THE OSLO COALITION ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF was founded in 1998. The Oslo Coalition Project on “Proselytism and Human Rights: The Right to try to Convince the Other” is among the best examples of good practices using Articles of the 1981 UN Declaration to assess substantive human rights issues. The Background Statement for this Project is available under the Eight Articles of the 1981 UN Declaration and linked at the end of this Issue Statement. In 2007 the Project was re-named “Missionary Activities and Human Rights.” The Oslo Coalition Work Program for this Project in 2007 is linked at the end of this Issue Statement. The Oslo Coalition website for this Project reads, “The aim of this project is to contribute, on the basis of human rights, to the resolution of conflicts arising from missionary activities.”

Extracts: Extracts 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 Issues Statement for each Tandem Project Review.  

Objective: 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 these international human rights standards as essential for long-term solutions to conflicts based on religion or belief.

Challenge: In 1967 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 driving 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 the 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, Asma Jahangir, Prague 25 Year Anniversary Commemoration of the 1981 UN Declaration, 25 November 2006.

DOCUMENTS ATTACHED

Extract Examples: Extracts 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.

The Examples for this Issue Statement are found both under the Eight Articles of the 1981 UN Declaration and in full at the end of this Document Attached.

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.

The right to engage in faith persuasion is not explicitly mentioned in art. 18. However, this will normally be a part of the “manifestation” of a belief, cf. paragraph 1 of the article – as “teaching” or as “practice”, the latter covering all thinkable forms of manifestations that are not explicitly mentioned in the article.[5] In some religions, the believers are urged by the religious doctrines to try to spread the faith. And for all beliefs, as long as the believer is strongly convinced, he or she will have a natural wish to try to convince others of the “truth” - if the “truth” is decisive for an afterlife as well, this wish may be strong.­­ Even if not being an integral part of a religion's or belief's dogmas, such kind of faith persuasion is covered by the phrase “manifestation. – The Oslo Coalition Project on Mission and Human Rights

The right to engage in faith persuasion is not explicitly mentioned in art. 18. However, this will normally be a part of the “manifestation” of a belief, cf. Para. 1 of the article – as “teaching” or as “practice”, the latter covering all thinkable forms of manifestations that are not explicitly mentioned in the article.[5] In some religions, the believers are urged by the religious doctrines to try to spread the faith. And for all beliefs, as long as the believer is strongly convinced, he or she will have a natural wish to try to convince others of the “truth” - if the “truth” is decisive for an afterlife as well, this wish may be strong.­­ Even if not being an integral part of a religion's or belief's dogmas, such kind of faith persuasion is covered by the phrase “manifestation”. – The Oslo Coalition Project on Mission and Human Rights

Falling within the ambit of art. 18 (1), the state may not interfere in proselytism activities without this being legitimate after para. 3 of the article (the “negative obligation”), cf. para. 6 below. Furthermore, the state has a “positive obligation”, to “ensure” the right: [6] The state is obliged to give its citizens protection against clear violations from other citizens who do not respect this right. Thus, the state may be obliged to protect an adherent of a minority belief, trying to convince a member of the majority religion, against harassment from the majority. – The Oslo Coalition Project on Mission and Human Rights

ISSUE STATEMENT:  This Oslo Coalition project has been re-named Missionary Activities and Human Rights. The Project Group’s proposed activities for 2007 included; “a report on a seminar (in Norwegian) entitled ‘What is a Christian and Muslim Mission?’; publication of a report from last year’s August seminar…; an international working group strategy to evaluate results so far and map a course forward; and a delegation visit to the Vatican and the World Council of Churches.” This Work Program is available on the Oslo Coalition website linked here and at the end of this Issue Statement, http://www.oslocoalition.org. Were the aims and objectives achieved? 

The Oslo Coalition project on Missionary Activity and Human Rights held a Workshop on Proselytism and Human Rights in Oslo, August 31-September 2, 2006. The purpose of the conference was to “facilitate a discussion…in the field of mission and human rights on how missionary activities relate to the freedom of religion or belief, with “one central aim of the consultation, to initiate a code of conduct for which broad acceptance among actors from different religious communities and in different cultural context is sought.” The end product will be “concrete contributions towards the work on a shared code of conduct.” The Workshop was held in 2006. A Seminar on the results so far and steps forward was to be held in 2007.

The Tandem Project would respectfully like to know if the right of atheists and unbelievers to proselytize is included in the Project, and if the Norwegian Humanist Institute is part of the Project. Has the Norwegian Project Group for Missionary Activities and Human Rights read the 2007 report to the UN General Assembly on “Substantive Issues: Situation of persons with atheistic or non-theistic beliefs” (A/62/280) by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Asma Jahangir? Are international human rights standards that provide equal protection by law against discrimination based on religion or belief for theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief included in the Project?

The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, in her report to the United Nations General Assembly, (A/61/340), paragraph 61, is cautious on legislation regarding Conversion and Propagation of Religion, “Legislation may not always be the appropriate response, in particular in circumstances involving matters of faith. While legislation can be easily resorted to it can sometimes be counterproductive to do so.” The Special Rapporteur ends her 2006 report with a recommendation in paragraph 76, “inter-religious communities should give serious consideration to developing an agreed code of ethics in pursuit of their missionary work.”

Ms. Jahangir in her report (A/62/280) on 26 October 2007 to the Third Committee of the Sixty-second General Assembly Session, referred to the report on incitement for the Human Rights Council that she had prepared with Doudou Diene, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. “She said that it had argued that defamation was a matter of legal terminology. It could range from an academic denunciation of a religion to an Article 20 violation of human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. If it was defamation to say that one religion was better than another, the result would be the religious prosecution of those who embarked on intellectual analysis of religions or those who were within their rights to say that their religion was superior. Religion and race were different; the former could be criticized objectively, but criticism of race was subjective.”

Why are the aims and objectives for 2007 in Norwegian and not English? Was the 2007 Seminar on results so far and steps forward been held and is there a draft of a shared code of conduct? Why was the Seminar entitled “What is a Christian and Muslim Mission” printed only in Norwegian? Has the Project Group consulted with the United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights? In 2005 the Republic of Korea sent more than 14,000 missionaries abroad, making it the second largest source of missionaries after the United States. Has the Project Group for Missionary Activities and Human Rights consulted with these two countries and the United Nations Secretary General, a South Korean, for comments on their work? In 2007 the Project Group plans were to send a delegation to the Vatican and the World Council of Churches for consultations on their work. Was this done?

Missionaries who try to convince the other are among the most solid holders of their beliefs. Education programs for missionaries on a shared code of conduct goes to the heart and core of religious and non-religious ideology. Will these shared codes be available for all places of worship, religious schools and non-religious associations? The Ambassador-at-Large of the Netherlands for Human Rights, Piet de Klerk, at the 25 Year Anniversary Commemoration of the 1981 UN Declaration, 25 November 2006, Prague, Czech Republic stated – “Our educational systems need to provide children with a broad orientation: from the very beginning, children should be taught 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.” Can a variation on this recommendation be taught to missionary children as part of a shared code of conduct? Michael M. Roan is a member of the Oslo Coalition International Advisory Council.

http://www.oslocoalition.org/documents/mhrworkshop.doc
http://www.oslocoalition.org/mhr.php
http://www.oslocoalition.org.

The Tandem Project: a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 1986 to build understanding and respect for diversity of religion or belief, and 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 the 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

The Tandem Project initiative was launched in 1986 as the result of a co-founder representing the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) at a 1984 United Nations Geneva Seminar, Encouragement of Understanding, Tolerance and Respect in Matters Relating to Freedom of Religion or Belief, called by the UN Secretariat 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; Michael M. Roan, mroan@tandemproject.com.