Page - 360 - in Menschenrechte und Gerechtigkeit als bleibende Aufgaben - Beiträge aus Religion, Theologie, Ethik, Recht und Wirtschaft

© 2020, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847111658 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737011655 been created byGod in his image and acting as his representatives on earth.4 Humandignity as themain criteriondistinguishing humanbeings fromother creatureshasoftenbeenbasedonthe idea thatGodhas createdhumans inhis image.5 IngeborgGabriel rightly observes that the “religious insistence on the dignityofhumanbeings(or realising theDivine inthemselves)canbeastrong incentivetoreducehumansuffering”.6“Thisshowsthatfromthepointofviewof theology there isa largeoverlappingconsensusbetweenthebasic intentionsof humanrightsandthemoraldemandsof religion”.7 Ontheotherhand,weshouldalsorecognizethatthroughouthistory,religions have often fostered conflict, discrimination and atrocities committed in their name–or havebeenmisused to these ends. Freedomof religion is one of the oldestandmost importanthumanrightsand“avanguardofamovementwhich led to the American and French revolutions and their human rights declara- tions”.8At the same time, freedomof religion is oneof themost controversial humanrights.Thishastodowithacertaintendencyofreligionstoclaimtobein the solepossessionof the“absolute truth”which leads themnot to respect the freedomof thosewithadifferent faith, feeling insteadcalleduponto“convert” them.9As long as governments try to remain neutral or secular and prohibit proselytism as an impermissible interference with other religions, such ten- denciesusuallydonotposeamajorproblem.Ifgovernments,however, followa system of a state religion or clearly give priority treatment to one religious community, thedangerofarbitraryordiscriminatory treatmentarises.10Many armedconflictsandatrocities, fromthe30YearsWar inEuropeduring the17th century to the armed conflicts inBosnia andHerzegovinaduring the 1990s, a multitudeof armedconflicts andmajorhumanrights violations in theMiddle East, in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India or Myanmar give evidence of the dangers of religious radicalisation and themisuse of religion by governments andnon-stateactors, includingarmedandterrorist groups. Thehistoryofhumanrights isalsoahistoryofrationalismduringtheAgeof Enlightenment against thepowerof authoritarian regimes,which claimed that 4 Ibid,p. 33. 5 Cf., e.g.,HeinerBielefeldt,Menschenwürde–DerGrundderMenschenrechte,Berlin2008, p. 12;ManfredNowak,MenschenwürdeundMenschenrechte,Wien2018,p. 31f. 6 Gabriel,TheRoleofReligions,p. 34. 7 Ibid,p. 35. 8 Ingeborg Gabriel, Freedom of Religion, in: Nowak / Januszewski / Hofstätter (eds.), All HumanRights forAll, pp. 392–395. 9 SeeManfredNowak,U.N.CovenantonCivilandPoliticalRights–CCPRCommentary,2.ed., Kehl-Strasbourg-Arlington2005,p. 408. 10 Cf.,e.g.,ManfredNowak/TanjaVospernik,PermissibleRestrictionsonFreedomofReligion or Belief, in: Tore Lindholm /W. Cole Durham / Bahia G. Tahzib-Lie (eds.), Facilitating FreedomofReligionorBelief:ADeskbook,Dordrecht2004,pp.147–172,here:p. 160. ManfredNowak/Anna-MariaSteiner360 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0