God, ALLAH or Bhagwan? It does me no injury for my neighbour to say that there are twenty gods or no God
Keywords:
Freedom of religion, India, France, anti-conversion laws, anti-separatism bill, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCP), Constitution of India (COI)Abstract
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to freedom of religion. The declaration gives everyone the right to practice their religion in private or in public, and it also gives everyone the right to convert. The declaration has been agreed upon amongst forty-eight nations, and members of the declaration guarantee religious freedom to their citizens through distinctive national laws. Religion has sparked several debates in recent times. The issues regarding the enactment of anticonversion laws and the ‘anti-separatism’ bill will be dissected within this paper. The aforementioned issues have been the subject of endless criticism, with the prevailing view being that such laws are in fact contrary to Article 18, infringing on the right to religious freedom. The paper will examine the legal rights to religious practice and conversion, and analyze judicial procurements through the lens of preconceptions of society and modern political philosophy.
