Does religious freedom warrant protection as a fundamental human right?

Abstract

Religious freedom is, in various legal documents, stipulated as a fundamental legal right. The European Convention on Human Rights prescribes that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. When we glance through the constitutions of countries of western legal order, we find that most of them prescribe freedom of religion as a fundamental right. However, there are authors who argue that freedom of religion does not warrant protection by a special right. Their principal argument is that the right to freedom of religion can be derived from more basic rights, and that this right should be protected as a right derived from such rights. The aim of this paper is to determine whether freedom of religion merits protection as a fundamental legal right or should it be protected as a derived right in which case it should be protected while protecting other fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of thought or conscience.