This volume examines the relationship between religion and human rights in seven major religious traditions, as well as key legal concepts, contemporary issues, and relationships among religion, state, and society in the areas of human ...

Author: John Witte

Publisher: OUP USA

ISBN: 9780199733446

Category: Political Science

Page: 392

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The relationship between religion and human rights is both complex and inextricable. While most of the world's religions have supported violence, repression, and prejudice, each has also played a crucial role in the modern struggle for universal human rights. Most importantly, religions provide the essential sources and scales of dignity and responsibility, shame and respect, restraint and regret, restitution and reconciliation that a human rights regime needs to survive and flourish in any culture. This volume provides authoritative examinations of the contributions to human rights of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and indigenous religions. Each chapter grapples with the concept and origins of "human rights," and offers insight into the major human rights issues that confront religious individuals and communities. These include core issues of freedom of religious conscience, choice, exercise, expression, association, morality, and self-determination. They also include analysis of the roles of religious ideas and institutions in the cultivation and abridgement of rights of women, children, and minorities, and rights to peace, orderly development, and protection of nature and the environment. With contributions by a score of leading experts, Religion and Human Rights provides authoritative and accessible assessments of the contributions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Indigenous religionsto the development of the ideas and institutions of human rights. It also probes the major human rights issues that confront religious individuals and communities around the world today, and the main challenges that the world's religions will pose to the human rights regime in the future.

This volume and its companion Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives are products of an ongoing project on religion, human rights and democracy undertaken by the Law and Religion Program at Emory University.

Author: John (jurista) Witte

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9041101764

Category: Political Science

Page: 597

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In this 'Dickensian century' of human rights, the world has cultivated the best of religious rights protections, but witnessed the worst of religious rights abuses. In this volume, Jimmy Carter, John T. Noonan, Jr., and a score of leading jurists assess critically and comparatively the religious rights laws and practices of the international community and of selected states in the Atlantic continents. This volume and its companion Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives are products of an ongoing project on religion, human rights and democracy undertaken by the Law and Religion Program at Emory University.

In the backdrop of the events of 11 September 2001, a considerable focus of this volume is upon the Muslim world, either through the emergent State practices and existing constitutional structures within Muslim majority States or through ...

Author: Javaid Rehman

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9789004158269

Category: Religion

Page: 569

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Freedom of religion is a subject, which has throughout human history been a source of profound disagreements and conflict. In the modern era, religious-based intolerance continues to provide lacerative and tormenting concern to the possibility of congenial human relationships. As the present study examines, religions have been relied upon to perpetuate discrimination and inequalities, and to victimise minorities to the point of forcible assimilation and genocide. The study provides an overview of the complexities inherent in the freedom of religion within international law and an analysis of the cultural-religious relativist debate in contemporary human rights law. As many of the chapters examine, Islamic State practices have been a major source of concern. In the backdrop of the events of 11 September 2001, a considerable focus of this volume is upon the Muslim world, either through the emergent State practices and existing constitutional structures within Muslim majority States or through Islamic diasporic communities resident in Europe and North-America.

2 MAX L. STACKHOUSE Human Rights and Public Theology : The Basic
Validation of Human Rights The Triumph of and Threat to Human Rights As we
approach the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human
Rights , the ...

Author: Carrie Gustafson

Publisher: M.E. Sharpe

ISBN: 076560261X

Category: Political Science

Page: 209

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Countering the mainstream debate between religious freedom and the imposition of secular notions of human rights, contributors from various religious traditions explore the impact of religion itself on human rights. Among the topics they take up are environmental rights, the rights of women in India and Iran and within Orthodox Judaism, the global imposition of criminal justice, and the pressure in Latin American to democratize the Catholic Church. Six of the seven essays are followed by lengthy responses. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Although the international community had already addressed racial
discrimination, racial hatred, and other human rights issues, the United Nations
did not address racial and religious discrimination and intolerance until the early
sixties, ...

Author: Natan Lerner

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9789004152090

Category: Political Science

Page: 228

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Religion, and beliefs related to religion, are today a central factor in international life and politics. International law, and human rights law in particular, have to take into consideration the religious dimension, and have done it to some extent. A body of positive law has already been developed for the protection of freedom of religion, and from religion, by the U.N. and regional organizations. This book, incorporating previously published as well as unpublished materials, discusses the legal meaning of religion and belief, the U.N. work in this respect, religious minorities, relevant regional and special arrangements, the issues of proselytism, religion and terrorism, the use of religious symbols, international criminal law, and some particular situations, such as the state and religious communities in Israel and this country's agreement with the Holy See. Law schools, human rights scholars and activists, and international organizations will find interest in the book.

of human rights by providing a coherent and integrated interpretation that
protects the document from the distortions to which it has too often been
subjected. In the twentieth century, Ronald Dworkin and John Rawls are two
among many who ...

Author: Clemens Neumann Nathan

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9789004174153

Category: Political Science

Page: 232

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Clemens N. Nathan has devoted a lifetime to the pursuit of Human Rights to understanding and reflecting upon the concept of Human Rights; to participating in, and sometimes helping to create, organisations and mechanisms for the protection and promotion of Human Rights; to helping those who have been denied their Human Rights and to encouraging and supporting research into and scholarship on Human Rights. All this has been achieved by a man who has had no formal training in the field, but who has become a recognised expert through his extensive reading, through working with leading exponents, and by drawing upon his lively intellect, his wealth of culture and his knowledge of history, philosophy and religions. This volume, published under the auspices of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, offers insight into the challenging relationship between religion and human rights.

Alexander Unser and Hans-Georg Ziebertz Abstract This article reflects on the
relation of religion and human rights in Germany. How is religion covered in
debates about human rights and how are religious communities involved in
public ...

Author: Hans-Georg Ziebertz

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319097312

Category: Religion

Page: 206

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This book examines the relationship between human rights and religiosity. It discusses whether the impact of religiosity on human rights is liberational or suppressive, and sheds light on the direction in which the relationship between religion and human rights is expected to develop. The questions explored in this volume are: Which are the rights that are currently debated or under pressure? What is the position on human rights that churches and religious communities represent? Are there tensions between churches, religious communities and the state? Which rights are especially relevant for young people and which relate to adolescents life-world experiences? Covering 17 countries, the book describes two separate, yet connected studies. The first study presents research by experts from individual countries describing the state of human rights and neuralgic points anticipated in individual societies. The other study presents specific findings on the relationship between these two social phenomena from empirical research in a population of high school students. Studying this particular population allows insights into social trends, value systems and attitudes on human rights, as well as an indication of the likely directions of development, and potential room for intervention.

further reflections on a “two-tiered” approach to justification In taking up the
question of the conditions of comprehensive justifications of human rights
language, and especially those justifications that are religious, I begin by
recalling the ...

Author: David Little

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781107072626

Category: Law

Page: 420

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"This collection of essays by David Little addresses human rights in relation to the historical settings in which its language was drafted and adopted. Featuring five original essays, Little articulates his view that fascist practices before and during World War II vivified the wrongfulness of deliberately inflicting severe pain, injury, and destruction for self-serving purposes and that the human rights corpus, developed in response, was designed to outlaw all practices of arbitrary force. He contends that while there must be an accountable human rights standard, it should guarantee latitude for the expression and practice of beliefs, consistent with outlawing arbitrary force. Little details the theoretical grounds of the relationship between religion and human rights, and concludes with essays on US policy and the restraint of force in regard to terrorism. With a foreword by John Kelsey, this book is a capstone of the work of this influential writer on religion, philosophy, and law"--

This volume offers an empirical perspective on the so-called first generation of human rights.

Author: Hans-Georg Ziebertz

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 331959284X

Category: Social Science

Page: 235

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This volume offers an empirical perspective on the so-called first generation of human rights. It explores the legitimization of these human rights by individual people, both because of their religion and because of their vision of what constitutes human dignity. The book addresses such issues as the foundation of human rights, the necessity of a broader conversation about human rights, aspects of freedom of religion, and the role of religion in Belarus, Britain, Chile, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Norway and Tanzania. Taking an international comparative perspective, the volume answers the question as to what extent adolescents in different countries support civil human rights and what influences their attitudes towards these rights. As the diversity of the contributions in this volume shows, the relationship between religion and civil human rights is complex and multifaceted. Studying this complicated relationship calls for a variety of theoretical perspectives and rigorous empirical testing in different national contexts. This book’s empirical approach provides an important complementary perspective for legal, political and public debates.

WOMEN RIGHTS AND RELIGION AMONG CHRISTIAN AND ISLAMIC
STUDENTS IN TANZANIA Leo W.J.M. van der Tuin and Clement D. Fumbo 1.
Introduction The relationship between religion and human rights is the focus of
research ...

Author: Johannes A. van der Ven

Publisher: BRILL

ISBN: 9789004218673

Category: Social Science

Page: 255

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This volume contains four theoretical and four empirical articles that aim at conceptual clarification and descriptive and causal exploration on data from 14 countries about historical and current tensions within and between religions, Christiantity and Islam, and human rights in various contexts.

... case of human rights see civil religion of human rights? human rights as civil
religionsee human rights: a possible civil ... inspiration for civil religion/possible
security discourse 11–13 and human rights in the real worldsee human rights
and ...

Author: Helle Porsdam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781781000526

Category: Political Science

Page: 232

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This ground breaking book discusses whether human rights can be forged into a common set of transcendent principles against which actions of every nation can be judged and whether such a common understanding, or civil religion, could one day become a vehicle for global peace. Eminent international scholars of history, political science, international relations, human rights and civil religion argue both sides of this debate. In Part One, the theoretical issues relating to why human rights have come about and whether they should be fought for are discussed. Part Two focuses on the reality of actions brought about by human rights ideas with illuminating case studies showing that human rights ideas and practice are generated from both the bottom up and top down by individual actors and institutions. The unique book will be of great interest to scholars in the field of history, human rights, international relations and political science in general.

The relationship between religion and human rights has usuallybeen seen as an
uneasy one.1 The complexity of the issue is heightened by certain intellectual
and political challenges of the contemporary world that require a clarification in ...

Author: Abamfo Ofori Atiemo

Publisher: A&C Black

ISBN: 9781441164940

Category: Religion

Page: 256

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It has been maintained that the secular nature of modern human rights makes them incompatible with the religious orientation of African and non-Western societies. However, in view of the resilience of religion in the global and local public sphere, it is important to explore how religion can contribute to the promotion and enjoyment of human rights. Based on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Abamfo Ofori Atiemo here establishes a convergence between human rights and local religious and cultural values in African societies. He argues that human rights represent universal 'dream values'. This allows for a cultural embedding of human rights in Ghana and other non-Western societies. He argues that 'dream values' are usually presented in religious language and proclaimed, for example, by prophets and seers or expressed in certain forms of taboo, proverbs or legal norms. He employs the concept of inculturation, adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian cultures, as a hermeneutical tool for developing a model to understand the encounter between universal human rights and local cultures. Offering a new model for explaining the relation between religion and human rights, Religion and the Inculturation of Human Rights in Ghana offers a novel perspective on the links between global trends and local cultures underpinned by strong currents of religious ideas.

Essays on Religion and Human Rights Nazila Ghanea-Hercock, Alan Andrew
Stephens, Raphael Walden ... Examining the Inevitability of a Clash between '
Religions' and 'Human Rights' Javaid Rehman . introduction The debate on the ...

Author: Nazila Ghanea-Hercock

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9789004152540

Category: Political Science

Page: 272

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Where can religions find sources of legitimacy for human rights? How do, and how should, religious leaders and communities respond to human rights as defined in modern International Law? When religious precepts contradict human rights standards - for example in relation to freedom of expression or in relation to punishments - which should trump the other, and why? Can human rights and religious teachings be interpreted in a manner which brings reconciliation closer? Do the modern concept and system of human rights undermine the very vision of society that religions aim to impart? Is a reference to God in the discussion of human rights misplaced? Do human fallibilities with respect to interpretation, judicial reasoning and the understanding of human oneness and dignity provide the key to the undeniable and sometimes devastating conflicts that have arisen between, and within, religions and the human rights movement? In this volume, academics and lawyers tackle these most difficult questions head-on, with candour and creativity, and the collection is rendered unique by the further contributions of a remarkable range of other professionals, including senior religious leaders and representatives, journalists, diplomats and civil servants, both national and international. Most notably, the contributors do not shy away from the boldest question of all - summed up in the book's title. The thoroughly edited and revised papers which make up this collection were originally prepared for a ground-breaking conference organised by the Clemens Nathan Research Centre, the University of London Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Martinus Nijhoff/Brill.

For a much more detailed and nuanced study of the relationship between
Judaism and human rights, see Peter J. Haas, Human Rights and the World's
Major Religions, vol. 1, The Jewish Tradition (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005).
34.

Author: Richard Amesbury

Publisher: Fortress Press

ISBN: 9781451408454

Category: Religion

Page: 146

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This book argues that the idea of human rights is not exclusively religious, but that its realization in practice requires urgent action on the part of people of all faiths, and of none. Acknowledging the ambiguous moral legacy of their own tradition, Christianity, the authors draw on christological themes to draft blueprints for a culturally sensitive "theology of human rights."

RELIGION, PERSONALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES DISTINGUISHING
BETWEEN RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND TEXTUAL AUTHORITY AMONG
CHRISTIANS AND ...

Author: Johannes A. van der Ven

Publisher: BRILL

ISBN: 9789004251403

Category: Philosophy

Page: 280

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This volume is about the positive, ambivalent, null and negative effects in various historical periods by various religious denominations within Christianity, Islam and Hinduism on the attitudes towards human rights of the first, second and third generation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My research into religion and human rights dates back
to 1993, when what was known as an interim constitution was being negotiated
at Kempton Park in South Africa on the eve of its first democratic elections in ...

Author: J. A. van der Ven

Publisher: BRILL

ISBN: 9789004183049

Category: Religion

Page: 473

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Drawing on historical inisights, systematic reflections and empirical data, this book offers a substantive understanding of the complex relationship between religion and human rights and of the empirical impact of Christianity and Islam on the attitudes toward human rights, i.e. a human rights culture.

Faith. in. Human. Rights: Human. Rights. in. Faith. Nazila. Ghanea-Hercock.
EFFECTIVE UNIVERSALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS Since the end of the Cold
War and the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, the call for a
deepened ...

Author: Cees J. Hameling

Publisher: Greenwood Publishing Group

ISBN: 0275964523

Category: Religion

Page: 242

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Provides a framework for analyzing the relationship between the religious ideology, legal system, and communications freedom of several nations.

Conclusions are then drawn about the compatibility or incompatibility of religious
traditions with human rights in general.1 This book departs from that established
approach in three ways. First, it regards traditions as internally diverse.

Author: Thomas Banchoff

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0199841039

Category: Social Science

Page: 336

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Are human rights universal or the product of specific cultures? Is democracy a necessary condition for the achievement of human rights in practice? And when, if ever, is it legitimate for external actors to impose their understandings of human rights upon particular countries? In the contemporary context of globalization, these questions have a salient religious dimension. Religion intersects with global human rights agendas in multiple ways, including: whether ''universal'' human rights are in fact an imposition of Christian understandings; whether democracy, the ''rule of the people,'' is compatible with God's law; and whether international efforts to enforce human rights including religious freedom amount to an illicit imperialism. This book brings together leading specialists across disciplines for the first major survey of the religious politics of human rights across the world's major regions, political systems, and faith traditions. The authors take a bottom-up approach and focus particularly on hot-button issues like human rights in Islam, Falun Gong in China, and religion in the former Soviet Union. Each essay examines the interaction of human rights and religion in practice and the challenges they pose for national and international policymakers.

However , the chapters demonstrate that the principles of religious human rights
can no longer be ignored by any nation . In recent decades , virtually every nation
has committed itself to international and domestic covenants that declare ...

Author: Van der Vyver, J. D.

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

ISBN: 9041101772

Category: Political Science

Page: 670

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Media. By James Finn.

Religion and Human Rights: A Theological Apologetic MAX L. STACKHOUSE
Princeton Theological Seminary and STEPHEN E. HEALEY Boston College In
our deliberations on the reciprocal relationships of religion and human rights,
one ...

Author: Jr. Witte, John

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

ISBN: 0802848559

Category: Religion

Page: 633

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The legal traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have contributed much to the cultivation and violation of religious human rights around the world. In this volume Desmond Tutu, Martin Marty, and twenty leading scholars offer an authoritative assessment of these contributions and challenge people of all faiths to adopt "golden rules of religious liberty."