Introduction – Freedom of Religion as a Protected Right The right to freedom of religion, while having its origins in various sources including the Magna Carta, is a right protected today by all major international human rights instruments (Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art 18); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (art 18); European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (art 9)). Whatever definition is adopted of the term “religion”, most people recognise that religion is a matter of “ultimate concern”, something that shapes a person’s values, their understanding of the meaning of life and how they ought to behave. Any right to freedom of religion must include, as a minimum, the right to hold a particular religion or to change one’s religion. It is widely accepted that protection of religious freedom must also go beyond the protection of this internal aspect of the right to freedom of religion, and extend to the right to externally “manifest” religious beliefs in public gatherings, and the freedom to adhere to and observe one’s religious beliefs in both “religious” and “non-religious” settings. This extended concept of religious freedom is recognised in the ICCPR (art 18):

中文翻译：

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宗教自由与歧视立法中的平衡条款

引言——作为受保护权利的宗教自由 宗教自由权虽然起源于包括《大宪章》在内的各种来源，但今天是一项受到所有主要国际人权文书保护的权利（《世界人权宣言》（第 18 条）） ；《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》（ICCPR）（第 18 条）；《欧洲人权公约》（ECHR）（第 9 条）。无论对“宗教”一词采用何种定义，大多数人都承认宗教是“终极关怀”的问题，它塑造了一个人的价值观、他们对生命意义的理解以及他们应该如何行事。任何宗教自由权利必须至少包括持有特定宗教或改变宗教信仰的权利。人们普遍认为，对宗教自由的保护也必须超越对宗教自由权这一内在方面的保护，扩展到在公共集会中对外“表现”宗教信仰的权利，以及坚持和遵守宗教信仰的自由。在“宗教”和“非宗教”环境中观察自己的宗教信仰。《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》（第 18 条）承认了宗教自由的扩展概念：