Human Rights, Religious Identity, and the Private-Public Distinction
Journal Title: The Journal of Human Rights - Year 2007, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
It is thought that by respecting an adequately drawn private (or personal) sphere, political institutions can give sufficient freedom to people to develop their distinct cultural and religious identities without compromising human rights values. The public sphere is where rights are observed, the private is where rights claims have no role. However, the distinction between the private and the public sphere is a difficult one to draw. In this paper we argue that there is no pre-theoretical notion of the public and private, but rather that the boundaries between private and public are themselves sensitive to the moral theory of rights one adopts. So rather than rights being understood in terms of the public and the private, the public and private distinction should be understood in terms of rights. As evidence for the lack of an independent distinction we cite a study of cases in European courts, where the public-private distinction was paramount in adjudicating the rights of religious minorities. چکیده در این مقاله، تحلیلی از مسئلة اصلی نظریه و رویة قضایی حقوق بشر را بسط می‌دهیم. مشکل به برخورد با هویت دینی در دولت‌هایی مربوط می‌شود که مدعی دفاع از معیارهای حقوق بشر در اروپا هستند. این مشکل - به عنوان مثال - خود را در قالب ممنوعیت اعمال مذهبی خاصی نشان داده است که تصور می‌شود اصول مطابق با مبانی دولت در برخی از حکومت‌های اروپایی را نقض می‌کند. از جملة این اعمال مذهبی می‌توان به پوشیدن روسری و سایر موارد مذهبی توسط کسانی که وظایفی دولتی برعهده دارند (مانند کارمندان دولت و معلمین) یا کسانی که به اماکن عمومی وارد می‌شوند (مانند محصّلان مدارس و دانشگاه‌های دولتی)، اشاره کرد.
Authors and Affiliations
Saladin Meckled-Garcia, Basak Cali
Keywords
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