In honor of the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act ten years ago today, the Pew Forum has featured a Q&A with Allen Hertzke:
Ten years ago, there was skepticism in some circles about treating religious freedom as a basic human right and promoting it as a U.S. foreign policy objective. To what extent has this ideal of religious freedom been embraced by Congress, the State Department, human rights groups, the media and others?
I think there’s been a sea change in the appreciation of religious freedom as a fundamental human right. Religious freedom, in fact, is recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was promulgated by the United Nations in 1948. Historically, secular human rights groups have often been skittish about promoting religious freedom because, to them, religion is often a force for reaction, repression and so forth. But secular human rights groups now appreciate the extent to which the movement for religious freedom has added new energy to the broader human rights quest. It’s brought them new allies in the more general human rights movement.
Journalists are also more attentive to religious persecution than they used to be. I think persecuted Christians are viewed as authentically persecuted now, whereas in the past there was some suspicion that perhaps the extent of the persecution was exaggerated. I think the problem of the denial of religious freedom for communities around the world is now seen as a major problem.
There has also been a change in how the academic world views this issue. We have a whole new line of scholarship that is beginning to show how important religious freedom is to human rights, democracy and economic development. So I think that the movement helped to highlight the important relationship of religious freedom to other things we value, and that’s going to be a lasting change.
Read the full interview here.