The legal classification of the repression of freedom of religion and the violence against religious communities

Abstract

The article discusses the legal assessment of violence called repression of freedom of religion and violence against religious communities. The legal evaluation of the forms of violence carried out during the communist totalitarian regime in Slovenia, and their criminal legal conclusion illuminate and fill the legal aspect of transitional justice and national reconciliation in the Republic of Slovenia. We provided the answer to the scientific question of whether the repression of freedom of religion and the violence against religious communities can be legally classified as crimes against humanity by carrying out a legal assessment (a legal classification) based on the classic subsumption scheme, which requires establishing the closest match of the legally relevant facts and the legal signs of a lawfully applicable legal norm to determine the legal conclusion, that is the legal classification as a value synthesis or deduction. We found that the persecution on religious grounds in the form of repression of freedom of religion and violence against religious communities carried out along with some other form of crimes against humanity is legally classified as crimes against humanity. Violence against religious communities that consisted,only'of the executive action of persecution on religious grounds is legally classified as a systematic violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.