WASHINGTON, CMC – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has published a study on freedom of religion and belief in compliance with the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) mandate.
The “Inter-American Standards on Freedom and Religion and Belief” has also been published by Articles 13 and 58 of its Regulations, the IACHR said, adding that the right to freedom of religion and belief is enshrined in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (article III) and the American Convention on Human Rights (article 12).
In the Americas, including the Caribbean, various violations of the right to freedom of religion and belief are recorded in connection with other human rights and different groups in vulnerable situations.
“In this sense, the study presents the developments of the bodies of the Inter-American Human Rights System—the IACHR and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)—on this right, from a vision that postulates universality, inalienability, indivisibility and interdependence. from the human rights.”
The IACHR said that the methodology followed to prepare the study consisted of reviewing, systematizing, and analyzing the standards in reports and other approved documents published by the IACHR and in relevant rulings and advisory opinions of the Inter-American Court.
“Likewise, statements issued in press releases are included concerning some topics not yet addressed in detail within the framework of the thematic and country reports or the petitions and cases system. Also included are admissibility reports, in which the IACHR has considered that the events reported could constitute, prima facie, violations of the right to freedom of religion and belief.”
The IACHR said that in preparing the study, gender and ethnic-racial approaches were applied, as well as the perspective of intersectionality, to account for the different realities that groups face in exercising this human right in the region.
In this way, the study brings together the binding jurisprudence on freedom of religion and belief of the IACHR and the Inter-American Court, as well as the advisory opinions of this Court and other pronouncements of the IACHR with legal effects.
It said the study is complemented by the standards on freedom of religion and belief developed in the universal human rights system.
“With the publication of this impartial and highly technically rigorous study, the IACHR seeks to contribute elements to the debates necessary to advance the respect and guarantee of the right to freedom of religion and belief in the plural and democratic societies<’ said the IACHR, which is a leading and autonomous body of the OAS.
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