Becket Fund Releases Religious Freedom Report on India for UN UPRNov 21, 2007 The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has released a report on religious freedom in India as part of the first Universal Periodic Review of United Nations member states.
According to the Becket Fund's report, despite strong constitutional guarantees for religious liberty in India, provincial implementation of these protections has fallen woefully short of international religious freedom standards. The report focuses on a legal analysis of state "anti-conversion" laws and discusses the overbreadth of the laws, mandatory registration of conversion as a deterrent to religious expression, and the normative effects of anti-conversion laws on India's religiously diverse society.
The Becket Fund recommended that the Council evaluate India "not only on constitutional assurances of religious freedom, but also on the enforcement, or lack thereof, of these assurances, particularly at the local and regional levels." The Becket Fund also encouraged the UNHRC to request India provide a thorough study of state anti-conversion laws.
The Universal Periodic Review is a newly created process at the United Nations by which the human rights records of all UN member states will regularly be examined through a common review process. The UN Human Rights Council is preparing to conduct its first review of India in April 2008. Other states being reviewed in April 2008 include Bahrain, Ecuador, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Finland, United Kingdom, Brazil, Philippines, Algeria, Poland, Netherlands, South Africa, Czech Republic, and Argentina.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is an NGO with special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Read the full text of the Becket Fund's report.
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