RIGHT TO RELIGION IN FRANCE

Abstract

Art. 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that, all human beings are entitled to the rights and freedoms laid down in the Declaration, and that they cannot be discriminated on the basis of their race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion. Yet, day in day out millions of people across the globe are discriminated on the basis of at least one of these factors. That being said, in modern times one of the most controversial issues which is hotly discussed and debated upon, is the factor ‘Religion’. 

The word religion is derived from the Latin term “religare”, which means “to tie or to bind fast”. Religion therefore, binds people’s beliefs and practices with their obligation, to show reverence towards something that’s as sacred as god. That being said, religion is not always, associated with a particular system of faith and worship of a transcendent deity. In fact in human rights discourse the term “religion” also includes support for the right to non-religious beliefs, such as atheism or agnosticism.  In 1993 the Human Rights Committee described religion or belief as “theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.” Therefore, both religious and non-religious beliefs provide hope and comfort to billions of people across the globe, and hold great potential for peace and reconciliation. However, at the same time it goes without saying that, they have also been a source of great tension and conflict. Thus, the ongoing struggle for religious freedom has over the centuries led to numerous terrifying and appalling conflicts. Therefore, the subject of our study in this paper is one such conflict, which was brought into existence due to the religious intolerance shown by the Secular state of France, by way of banning manifestation of religious symbols, thereby causing widespread anger, agony and hatred amongst the minority groups against the French Republic.