No right to baptism in ICCPR

Many people mean „the“ human rights would grant freedom of religion implying that murdering of christians which before were muslims would be a violation of human rights. At least this is how article 18 of the Universial Declaration of Human Rights reads:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

however in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that was derived from it the right of changing the believe is gone. Again article 18 it reads:

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.

3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. 4. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.

attentive reader will notice, that this is worth nothing, since the right to change his believe is no longer mentioned. The ICCPR is insofar important as the concrete implementation of human rights into national law is done through to be ratified human rights conventions. The german language wikipedia article on Egypt tells us this:

Egypt participated in 1966 to attenuate the wording from the human rights declaration from 1948 „the freedom to change his religion or belief“ in a way that it reads now in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: „the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief.“

Thus clerics in Egypt who demand death sentence for converts violate merely conditionally against ICCPR, because actually the right to change ones believe does in a strict sense not exist in the legal system of the United Nations. It means that through ratification and monitoring of the ICCPR norms in the frame of the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) nothing can be achieved in this matter. Though arguing against death sentences is possible, but this is not satisfactory.

Baptism in Jordan River

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