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Is Religion A Threat To Human Rights? Or Is It The Other Way Around? Defending Individual Autonomy In The Ecthr's Jurisprudence On Freedom Of Religion, Andrea Scoseria Katz, Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque

Scholarship@WashULaw

Religious freedom is part and parcel of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)’s broad catalogue of human rights. Yet in reality, religion and human rights can have a fraught, conflictive relationship. Is religion a threat to human rights? Are human rights a threat to religion?

These questions resist easy answers, yet an examination of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) suggests that, on the whole, the Court has been more successful in identifying threats posed by religious beliefs or organizations to human rights than vice-versa. As to the former, we examine case-law in two subject …