Module Directory

Though widely seen as a privilege for religious actors, religious freedom under international law offers equal protection to those who are religious and non-religious, those who hold theistic, non-theistic, atheistic, non-religious or philosophical beliefs, and does so regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Historical and contemporary developments show how ‘religion’ or ‘religious freedom’ is often implicated in patriarchy, misogyny, bigotry, violence, wars, imperialism and mass atrocities. However, religious actors also play an important role in responding to humanitarian crises, assisting in development work, supporting social protection projects, opposing tyranny and oppression, promoting peace and conflict-resolution, and empowering oppressed and excluded voices, including indigenous peoples, women and LGBT+ persons, and refugees. As societies around the world have become more diverse with religion playing an increasingly prominent role in public life, often leading to what have been called ‘culture wars’ and ‘conscience wars’, the tasks of ‘right-sizing religion’ and reclaiming equal rights for all have become more urgent. This module responds to this challenge given that engaging with aspects of ‘religious freedom’ has become both unavoidable and crucial not just to public policymakers and duty bearers, but also for human rights advocates and academic researchers.

The aims of this module are:

• To enable to students to develop a range of skills to engage with a number of widespread controversies in the conceptualisation and practice of human rights, and to empower them to carry out further independent research. The issues that are examined are cross-cutting and provide perspectives from a variety of disciplines.


• To equip students with cross-cultural dialogue skills that are necessary for a range of careers that touch upon human rights and cultural diversity whether as diplomats, human rights advocates, journalists, educators, or academic researchers, among others, where interaction with peoples from diverse backgrounds and cultures and identities is needed.


• To empower students to apply a human rights approach to the particular challenges to law, public policy and societal harmony that are imposed by misuses of religious freedom.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Understand the foundational role of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief in the broad human rights framework and develop literacies to negotiate and promote human rights in secular and de-secularised spaces.


2. Examine critically hegemonic, postcolonial and gendered perspectives on human rights and develop the tools necessary for cross-cultural understanding and engagement and to promote societal inclusion.


3. Analyse the inter-relationship between culture, colonialism, religion, patriarchy, and politics in the realisation of human rights.


4. Develop critical reasoning, analytical writing and oral argumentation skills.


5. Carry out independent research into the subject.

The module content draws on an expanding body of mainstream and critical scholarship on religious freedom as well as ground-breaking and internationally acclaimed practice-based work being carried out by the Religion and Equality Project of the Essex Human Rights Centre.

It covers the normative framework for freedom of religion or belief under international law along with a number of key challenges faced by states in protecting these freedoms for all, and critiques related to the framing and exercise of this freedom.

The seminars include deep dives into specific topics such as protections for gender equality, state obligations to uphold the right to non-discrimination including promoting substantive equality, duties upon states to prohibit advocacy of religious hatred, and effects of different state-religion relationships on the rights of various groups in vulnerable situations. It further covers frontier topics in the field such as impacts of new and emerging technologies on the freedom of thought.

In examining these topics, in addition to substantive aspects of international human rights law, students will also engage with critical perspectives, including decoloniality and postcolonial theory, critical race theory, non-religious perspectives, and Muslim state practices especially in relation to religious freedom and gender equality.

This module will be taught via weekly 2-hour seminars.

The module teaching team will upload all relevant teaching materials on Moodle. You will find reading lists, the textbook, weekly handouts or PPS notes on Moodle. The materials in question are designed both to help you navigate the material to be covered in the seminars and to equip you to analyse the required readings. You will be expected to have completed the required readings in advance of your seminars.