Religious Freedom Deserves a Right of Its Own

While the human right of religious freedom is ever crushed in China, Iran, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan and is newly curtailed in developed democracies, it has come to face an additional, more conceptual threat over the past quarter century in developed democracies. There, intellectuals are calling into question whether religious freedom merits a right of its own. This is a worrisome development for religious freedom. Its support everywhere depends on a consensus among scholars in universities and law schools, who train lawyers, civil servants, activists, and politicians, who in turn uphold the architecture of laws and policies that give this right legal force and moral legitimacy. 

In December 2023, the world celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 of which gives pride of place to religious freedom. Now we must ask whether religious freedom will enjoy its status as a legally protected human right for another seventy-five years, or twenty-five, or ten. The human right of religious freedom needs a fresh defense.