Introduction to Symposium: International Protection of Religious Freedom: National Implementation

The Protection of Religious Rights Under Australian Law

In 1998, Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) issued a report in which it stated that the level of protection afforded to the right to freedom of religion and belief in Australia was relatively weak compared to a number of comparable countries. Although there have been a few changes in the intervening ten years, this article demonstrates that HREOC's statement remains accurate. In this article, the author analyzes the Australian legal framework governing the right...

Religion and Rule of Law in China Today

In the politics of modern society there are two standards which have universal consensus in the world: one is "democracy," the other "rule of law." These two standards are also reflected typically in legislation on religion. Of course the development of the rule of law in human history has experienced a long and complicated process. Since 1978, in connection with the new reform in China, certain laws and regulations dealing with religious affairs have already been enacted. The current situati...

Svato-Mykhaylivska Parafiya V. Ukraine: A Thing Done by Halves?

About two years have passed since the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided Svato-Mykhaylivska Parafiya v. Ukraine, a case in which the Court held that Ukraine violated Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The author argues that even though this case undoubtedly dealt with freedom of religion, it was essentially a corporate and property dispute. To substantiate this view, the author starts with a brief explanation of the historical ...

The Implementation of Inter-American Norms On Freedom of Religion in the National Legislation of Oas Member States

On Nov 22, 1969, members of the Organization of American States (OAS) met in San Jose, Costa Rica, to adopt the American Convention on Human Rights. After its eleventh ratification, deposited by Grenada on Jul 18, 1978, the treaty went into force. Through this Pact of San Jose, the OAS established two organs to supervise the implementation and enforcement of the rights contained therein. These organs, namely, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Commission) and the Inter-American Co...

The Long Road to Religious Freedom in Peru

When the Brigham Young University Law Review published the article Antecedents, Perspectives, and Projections of a Legal Project about Religious Liberty in Peru, they did not imagine that parliamentary discussions regarding the approval of this bill would be postponed for such a long time. This seemed unthinkable when considering the significance of the purpose of the regulation, which is to achieve the frill exercise of religious freedom and other related fundamental freedoms. It is not the ...

The Protection of Religious Freedom by the National Constitution and by Human Rights Treaties in the Republic of Argentina1

Argentina is a religious society with long-held faith in God. This religious tradition has been a characteristic of the Argentine people since the beginning. To this day, nearly two hundred years after the start of Argentina's march toward independence, religion continues to be a crucial part of Argentine life. The Constitution of Argentina was first adopted in the year 1853. Consistent with Argentina's religious tradition, this "theistic" constitution invokes the name of God in its preamble....

Laity and Laicism: Are These Catholic Categories of Any Use in Analyzing Chilean Church-State Relations?

An examination of the emergence of secularism in Chile leads to the conclusion that Chile is a country of paradoxes -- paradoxes that are the result of a paradigm of church-state relations in flux. Just like all Latin-American nations, Chile's constitutional development was greatly influenced by liberal tendencies. Not until 1925 was there a reformation of the 1833 constitution -- which was, in essence, an entirely new constitution. This Constitution came to light as part of a friendly agreem...

The Colombian Experience in the Area of Protection of the Freedom of Religion

From its beginnings as a republic, Colombia is a country that has been extensively and productively engaged in matters of public international law. As a result, Colombia is a member of several international organizations and a high-level contracting party to several bilateral treaties and other important multilateral treaties and declarations. Some of these international instruments are specifically related to human rights. From 1811 until the present day, Colombia has had several provincial ...

A Teacher's Right to Remain Silent: Reasonable Accommodation of Negative Speech Rights in the Classroom

Nearly every significant case analyzing public school teacher speech rights in the classroom involves affirmative expression. This should come as no surprise, given that the learning process in the classroom is built on active speech, mostly by the teacher. In Palmer v. Board of Education, one of the few cases to squarely address the issue of a teacher's negative speech rights in the classroom, the Seventh Circuit answered with a conclusory "No." This comment proposes that school districts an...

The Eighty Percent and Twenty Percent Solutions to Nuclear Proliferation

Nuclear non-proliferation issues abound in the news. Of note, the US Air Force has been reprimanded for lax nuclear security measures, Iran is accused of trying to build a bomb, and experts predict that the forty-year-old Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is failing. These nuclear proliferation fears correspond to the issues of loose nukes, nations developing nuclear arms, and inability of the international community to control nuclear non-proliferation. Whether or not ...