Europe

[Anyone doing research on human rights in this context is encouraged to contact the CESP.]

Beginning in the 1990s the countries of Center and Eastern Europe sought to recover from decades of Soviet domination.  These  three papers concern human rights, religion and post-Soviet societies in Europe.  Critiques are invited and may be published on this web site.

Religious Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe (Robert Traer, 1995)

New governments in states formerly under Communist control have in many cases incorporated into their constitutions international human rights law concerning freedom of religion or belief. In several instances, however, this opening of societies to preaching in the various religions traditions of our modern world has angered those who hope to recover and reassert the cultural and religious heritage devastated by Communist rule.

Rethinking Religious Freedom (Robert Traer, 1996)

The point of this essay is not to judge or compare the laws of the United States and Russia, but to see if distinguishing freedom of conscience, freedom of religious expression, freedom of religious association, and the freedom to carry on religious business are a helpful way of sorting out difficult issues concerning religious freedom.

Nationalism and Religious Freedom (Robert Traer, 1998)

International human rights law does not require a secular state, but instead requires states to "prevent and eliminate discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief" and to "combat intolerance on the grounds of religion or other beliefs." International law leaves open the question of special relationships between the state and one or more religious traditions to an evaluation of the effects of such relationships on religious freedom, rather than asserting in principle that any support for religion by a government will necessarily be discriminatory.