Freedom of Religion and the Relativity of Human Rights Joachim Willems, Helmut Zander, Mathieu Cudre-Mauroux.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willems, Joachim, Author.

Zander, Helmut, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (VI, 128 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin Boston De Gruyter, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Joachim Willems, Oldenbourg; Helmut Zander, Bonn; Mathieu Cudre-Mauroux, Fribourg, Switzerland.

Summary:

Human rights are a central common denominator in global politics but they often only fulfil this function if cultural relativity is ignored. In this volume, we use the example of the human right to freedom of religion (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 18) to show that human rights are rooted in Latin-European concepts and are therefore culturally relative. We discuss this relativity with regard to interpretations of religious freedom in Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Christian cultures. These examples demonstrate that our understanding of human rights is merely a product of negotiation. This, in turn, has enormous consequences for politics: We cannot assume that cultures which do not share Latin-European concepts, that are closely linked to Christian ideas, will adopt the human rights concepts without revision. The Declaration of Human Rights is therefore not a quasi-metaphysical foundation of politics, as we might wish, but the result of committed negotiation processes. Only an understanding of human rights that integrates the fundamental differences in the history and justifications of the freedom of religion into the political debate is capable of establishing a consensus on the validity of human rights.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

The Invention of Universal Human Rights with Regard to Religious Freedom. Christianitys Matrix, Globalisation, and the Tensions between Universality Claims and Relativity / Helmut Zander

The Duty to Respect and Protect Human Rights / Eva Maria Belser, Geraldine Cattilaz

The Right to Religious Conversion in Modern India / Ronojoy Sen

Buddhism and Human Rights / Jens Schlieter

The Russian Orthodox Church on Relativity of Human Rights and Universality of Christian Truth / Joachim Willems

The Concept of Human Rights in Islam as a Consequence of Islamic Grammar / Helmut Zander

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 28 2026)

ISBN:

3-11-223901-6