Offence to religious belief and international law

Thesis

Offence to religious belief is any form of expression deemed insulting to the religious belief of a person or a group of persons. Blasphemy and apostasy are notable examples of such offences, which are at times regarded as an affront to social and religious morals, but can also be deemed as an infringement of the law or even a violation of human rights. Despite being essentially intangible, such offences have led to prosecutions, arrests, riots, and deaths throughout history. Nevertheless, there is limited research on the legal nature of these offences, as well as little clarity on the terminology used to characterise offence to religious belief. This perplexing scenario is further aggravated by the lack of direction from international adjudicating bodies dealing with expressions deemed offensive to religious belief. Consequently, the issue in question remains highly contentious worldwide.

This thesis seeks to answer the following question: what are the normative underpinnings that international human rights courts and treaty bodies should take into consideration when deciding cases of offence to religious belief? To answer this question, the thesis will be divided into six chapters. The first chapter briefly scrutinises the foundations of prohibitions of offence to religious belief and proposes a re-examination of contemporary concepts related to such offences in order to test their compatibility with international human rights law. Chapters two to six examine structural and jurisprudential issues regarding offence to religious belief in international human rights law, to determine what are the normative principles that can be employed by international human rights courts and treaty bodies to resolve issues related to such offences. Therefore, this thesis addresses issues regarding offence to religious belief from a legal perspective, in order to provide greater legal certainty in such cases and a more holistic protection of human rights to every person.

Authors: Alves Pinto, TF

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: incitement to hatred; freedom of expression; freedom of religion or belief; hate speech; offence to religious belief; human rights; non-refoulement; freedom of assembly; blasphemy; apostasy
• Subjects: International law and human rights