Piecing the Puzzle—Women and Freedom of Religion or Belief

Abstract

Despite the normative integration between freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and women’s rights, the misperception that women’s rights and FoRB are clashing rights persists. This is compounded by the extensive religiously phrased reservations by States upon ratification of international treaties that amplify this misperception that FoRB serves to restrict women’s rights. The correctives to these misperceptions lie in reflecting upon the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights norms (see the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, article 1.5). They also lie in the realization that FoRB is a right like any other. FoRB is neither a right of “religion” as such nor an instrument for support of religiously phrased reservations and limitations on women’s rights.