Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

2. Everyone has the right to effective remedial relief by the competent national tribunals against any discrimination he may suffer on the grounds of religion or belief, through acts violating fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

ARTICLE IV

Everyone has the right to adhere, or not to adhere, to a religion or belief and to change in accordance with the dictates of his conscience-without being subjected to any pressure, inducement or undue influence likely to impair his freedom of choice or decision in this matter.

ARTICLE V

Parents or legal guardians have the right to decide upon the religion or belief in which a child should be brought up. In the case of a child who has been deprived of its parents, the best interests of the child being the guiding principle, their expressed or presumed wish shall be duly taken into account.

ARTICLE VI

Everyone has the right to comply with what is prescribed by his religion or belief and shall be free to worship, and profess, in public or in private, without suffering any discrimination on account of his religion or belief and specifically: 1. Every person and every group has the right to worship, either alone or together with others, in public or in private, and to maintain houses of worship in accordance with the prescription of their belief.

2. (i) Every individual has the right in association with others, without any limitation based on the number of members, to form and maintain religious communities and institutions.

(ii) Every religious community and institution has the right, in association with similar religious communities and institutions, to form territorial federations on a national, regional or local basis.

3. Everyone has the right to teach and to learn his religion or belief, his sacred language and religious traditions, either in public or in private. No one shall be compelled to receive instruction in a religion or belief contrary to his convictions or, in the case of children, contrary to the wishes of their parents, or legal guardians. All education shall be directed to promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all religions and beliefs.

4. Every religious group or community has the right to write, to print and to publish religious books and texts and shall be permitted to train the personnel required for the performance of its practices or rites. No religious group or community shall be prevented from bringing teachers from abroad for this purpose. Every religious group or community shall be enabled to have contacts with communities and institutions belonging to the same religion abroad.

5. (i) Everyone has the right to observe the dietary practices prescribed by his religion or belief. Any individual or any religious community shall be permitted to acquire and produce all materials and objects necessary for the observance of prescribed ritual or practices, including dietary practices.

(ii) Where the State controls the means of production and distribution, it shall help to provide the above-mentioned materials, or the materials and means necessary for their production, to religious communities of the religions concerned and to its members, and if necessary allow them to be imported.

6. Everyone has the right to make pilgrimage to sites held in veneration, whether inside or outside his country, and every State shall grant freedom of access to these places.

7. Equal legal protection shall be accorded to all forms of worship, places of worship and institutions. Similar guarantees shall be accorded to ritual objects, language or worship and sacred books.

8. Due account shall be taken of the prescriptions of each religion or belief relating to holy days and days of rest, and all discrimination in this regard between persons of different religions or beliefs shall be prohibited.

ARTICLE VII

Everyone shall have the right to have marriage rites performed in accordance with the prescriptions of his religion or belief, and no one shall be compelled

to undergo a religious marriage ceremony not in conformity with his convictions. Nothing in this Article shall, however, dispense anyone from the obligations to observe other requirements and formalities laid down by the law regarding marriage.

ARTICLE VIII

The prescriptions of the religion of a deceased person shall be followed in all matters affecting burial customs, subject to the wishes, if any, expressed by the deceased during his lifetime, or failing that those of his family.

ARTICLE IX

Equal legal protection shall be afforded to all cemeteries or other burial place and also to the funeral or memorial rites of all religions or beliefs.

ARTICLE X

[Religious communities shall have the right to receive the funds necessary for the carrying out of their functions.]

ARTICLE XI

No one shall be compelled to take an oath of a religious nature contrary to his convictions.

ARTICLE XII

No State shall discriminate in the granting of subsidies, in taxation or in exemptions from taxation, between different religions or beliefs or their adherents. However, public authorities shall not be precluded from levying general taxes or from contributing funds for the preservation of religious structures recognized as monuments of historic or artistic value.

ARTICLE XIII

1. The freedoms and rights set out in articles I, II, III, IV, V and XI shall not be subject to any restrictions.

2. The freedoms and rights set out elsewhere in this Declaration shall be subject only to the restrictions prescribed by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the legitimate requirements of morality, health, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. Any restrictions which may be imposed shall be consistent with the purposes and principles of the United Nations and with the rights and freedoms stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These freedoms and rights may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

ARTICLE XIV

1. All acts directed or intended to prevent or to restrict the freedom of religion or cult shall be prohibited.

2. All incitements to hatred or acts of violence, whether by individuals or organizations against any religious group of persons belonging to a religious community, shall be considered an offence against society and punishable by law and all propaganda designed to foster or justify it, shall be condemned.

3. In order to put into effect the purposes and principles of the present declaration, all States shall take immediate and positive measures, including legislative and other measures, to prosecute and/or declare illegal organizations which promote and incite to religious discrimination or incite to, or use violence for purposes of discrimination based on religion.

4. The United Nations, the specialized agencies, Member States and nongovernmental organizations shall do all in their power to promote energetic action, through research, education, information and appropriate legislation, with a view to hastening the elimination of all forms of religious discrimination and intolerance.

ANNEX II

REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP SET UP BY THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AT ITS TWENTIETH SESSION TO PREPARE A DRAFT DECLARATION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE1

The Working Group was instructed by the Commission to prepare a draft declaration on the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance, using as a basis for its discussion the text submitted by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (E/CN.4/873, para. 142).

There was no disagreement in the Working Group that the declaration should protect equally the right to adhere to any religion and the right to maintain any non-religious belief. Certain members felt however, that the text of the draft declaration submitted by the Sub-Commission (E/CN.4/873, para. 142), which used the words "religion or belief", did not adequately cover the notion of nonreligious beliefs, particularly "atheism". They would like to have the draft declaration spell out clearly and categorically the right to non-religious beliefs, including "atheism" and to this end proposed that a definition along those lines should be inserted before article I. On the other hand, several members felt that it was unnecessary to define the terms "religion" and "belief" since they were terms whose meanings were well understood in United Nations usage. However, a number of members were prepared to co-operate in drafting a definition if one was deemed essential. The Working Group [agreed to leave the question of a definition to the Commission and decided to transmit to the Commission the following suggested definitions:

(a) Austria: ["For the purpose of this Declaration the term 'belief' is understood as expression for the various theistic creeds or such other beliefs as agnosticism, free thought, atheism and rationalism."]

(b) Ukrainian SSR: ["In this Declaration the term 'religion or belief' means both religious beliefs and atheistic convictions."]

(c) United Kingdom: [In this Declaration the term 'belief' includes both religious and non-religious beliefs."]]

The Working Group was not able to take into consideration more than the first six articles of the text submitted by the Sub-Commission (E/CN.4/873, para. 142) in relation to which it prepared the draft provisions set forth below. The words in square brackets are those on which no agreement was reached in the Working Group. The words "religion or belief" which appear throughout the Working Group's text are provisional only, and their final form will depend on the Commission's decision on the question of a definition mentioned above.

TEXT OF THE ARTICLES AS PREPARED BY THE WORKING GROUP

[For texts of articles I to V see paragraphs 21, 24, 27, 30 and 33 of this working paper.]

ARTICLE VI1

Every person and every group or community has the right to manifest their religion or belief in public or in private, without being subjected to any discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief; this right includes in particular:

(a) Freedom to worship, to assemble and to establish and maintain places of worship or assembly;

(b) Freedom to teach, to disseminate [at home and abroad], and to learn their religion or belief, and also its sacred languages or traditions;

(c) Freedom to practice their religion or belief by establishing and maintaining charitable and educational institutions and by expressing the implications of religion or belief in public life;

(d) Freedom to observe the rites or customs of their religion or belief.

1 Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Thirty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 8 (E/3873), para. 296.

The inclusion of this article was agreed upon by all members of the Working Group. The representative of the United States of America felt, however, that the text failed to reflect all of the points covered in the original text of article VI, as transmitted by SubCommission, and that it needed completing with the further provisions proposed by his delegation and appearing in the annex.

ANNEX III

The following proposals submitted to the working group could not be discussed because of lack of time:

1. Ukrainian SSR-proposal for a new article:

"1. In order to ensure full freedom of conscience, the Church is [shall be] separated from the State and the School from the Church.

“2. All churches, religious creeds and movements are equal before the law. No church, creed or religious organization is or may be the object of any privileges or restrictions, in their activities. The domination, whether in name or in fact, of a particular church or creed shall be eliminated."

2. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a) Proposal for a new preambular paragraph as follows:

"Considering that freedom of atheistic beliefs is of the utmost importance to those who profess them, and that freedom of those beliefs, including the right to express them, should therefore be respected and guaranteed."

(b) Proposal for a new article:

"Freedom of religious and non-religious belief, and the rights and duties of persons of different beliefs, shall not be used for purposes of political or electoral campaigns or the kindling of hatred between peoples and different religious and national groups."

(c) Proposal for a new article:

"No religious creed or belief of any kind shall in any circumstances be used in order to prejudice the interests of strengthening universal peace and security or friendship and co-operation between peoples and States.

3. United States of America-proposal for new articles to follow after article VI:

"I

"Everyone, alone or in association with others, shall be free to comply with the tenets of his religion or belief, to observe its rituals, dietary and other practices, and to produce the objects, foods and other articles and facilities customarily used in its observances and practices, with freedom to import such articles from abroad if necessary. Where the State controls the means of production and distribution, it shall make these articles and foods available or provide the means for their purchase or production.

"II

"Everyone shall be free to observe the Holy Days associated with his religion or belief. Everyone shall have the right to make pilgrimages and other journeys in connexion with his religion or belief, whether inside or outside his country, and free access shall be granted to all Holy Places.

"III

"Every individual and religious group has the right to legal protection for its places of worship, for its rites, ceremonies, and activities, and for the burial places associated with its religion or belief.

"IV

Every person and every group, in accordance with his religion or belief, shall have the right to organize and maintain local, regional, national and international associations in connexion with their activities. Everyone shall have the right to communicate with and visit his co-religionists and believers, whether individuals or organizations at home and abroad."

APPENDIX 2

TITLE AND PREAMBULAR PARAGRAPHS OF THE DRAFT DECLARATION, AS FINALLY APPROVED BY THE COMMISSION DURING ITS 30TH AND 35TH SESSIONS

DRAFT DECLARATION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF INTOLERANCE AND OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RELIGION OR BELIEF

(1) Considering that one of the basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations is that of the dignity and equality inherent in all human beings, and that all States Members have pledged themselves to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the Organization to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,

(2) Considering that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights proclaim the principles of non-discrimination and equality before the law and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, including the right to choose, manifest and change one's religion or belief,

(3) Considering that the disregard and infringement of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, have brought, directly or indirectly, wars and great suffering to mankind, especially where they serve as a means of foreign interference in the internal affairs of other States and amount to kindling hatred between peoples and nations,

(4) Considering that religion or belief, for anyone who professes either, is one of the fundamental elements in his conception of life and that freedom of religion or belief should be fully respected and guaranteed,

(5) Considering that it is essential to promote understanding, tolerance and respect in matters relating to freedom of religion and belief and to ensure that the use of religion or belief for ends inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations, other relevant instruments of the United Nations and the purposes and principles of the present Declaration is inadmissible,

(6) Convinced that freedom of religion and belief should also contribute to the attainment of the goals of world peace, social justice and friendship among peoples and to the elimination of ideologies or practices of colonialism and racial discrimination,

(7) Noting with satisfaction the adoption of several and the coming into force of some conventions, under the aegis of the United Nations and of the specialized agencies, for the elimination of various forms of discrimination,

(8) Concerned by manifestations of intolerance and by the existence of discrimination in matters of religion or belief still in evidence in some areas of the world,

(9) Resolved to adopt all necessary measures for the speedy elimination of such intolerance in all its forms and manifestations and to prevent and combat discrimination on the ground of religion or belief.

(41)

« ÎnapoiContinuă »