Links to human rights documents, United Nations and other human rights bodies and to longer articles providing more in depth information about freedom of religion or belief in relation to cross cutting issues.
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Important safety notice
The rights you will learn about in the Learning Platform resource materials are the rights guaranteed by international law. Under international law, no state, organisation, religious or belief community or person can take these rights away from people. None the less, in some national contexts the exercise of these rights is illegal or risk filled. When using the resources, it is important to find out what laws apply in your context and consider how these relate to international law. When working to educate others, please remember that it may be dangerous to talk about human rights in general and freedom of religion or belief in particular. Please adapt the resources both to your audience and to risk factors. We provide scripts of all of our films in order to enable you to adapt the contents appropriately.
The rights you will learn about in the Learning Platform resource materials are the rights guaranteed by international law. Under international law, no state, organisation, religious or belief community or person can take these rights away from people. None the less, in some national contexts the exercise of these rights is illegal or risk filled. When using the resources, it is important to find out what laws apply in your context and consider how these relate to international law. When working to educate others, please remember that it may be dangerous to talk about human rights in general and freedom of religion or belief in particular. Please adapt the resources both to your audience and to risk factors. We provide scripts of all of our films in order to enable you to adapt the contents appropriately.
United Nations human rights bodies, procedures and initiatives
(OHCHR)
The OHCHR is the UN body mandated by the international community to work to promote and protect all human rights. The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the UN's highest ranking human rights official. The OHCHR has a variety of ways of working that are important for faith/belief communities and civil society to know of and relate to, including the following bodies and reference materials.
The OHCHR is the UN body mandated by the international community to work to promote and protect all human rights. The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the UN's highest ranking human rights official. The OHCHR has a variety of ways of working that are important for faith/belief communities and civil society to know of and relate to, including the following bodies and reference materials.
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The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system. Forty seven States sit on the Council which is responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. The Human Rights Council has several ways of working including appointing 'special procedures' and the Universal Periodic Review. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States in which each country is reviewed every four and a half years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. The UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights s ituations are assessed. The Human Rights Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by State who have signed and ratified the covenant. |
The special procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief is one of the special procedures - an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to identify existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief and present recommendations on ways and means to overcome such obstacles. Two useful collections of texts from the special rapporteurs on a wide range of thematic areas such as the right to adopt/change religion, places of worship and vulnerable groups. An easy way to find useful quotes from the special rapporteur for your advocacy or educational work. |
This initiative provides space for a cross-disciplinary reflection on the deep, and mutually enriching, connections between religions and human rights. The objective is to foster the development of peaceful societies, which uphold human dignity and equality for all and where diversity is not just tolerated but fully respected and celebrated. The initiative is based on the Beirut Declaration and its 18 commitments on “Faith for Rights”, through which theistic, non-theistic, atheistic and other believers have articulated how “faith” can stand up for “rights” more effectively so that both enhance each other.