Religious threats to Human Rights
Conscientious Refusal of Care (CRC)
can put job pressure on medics
and be deadly for patients
CRC laws give job protection for health care professionals who refuse to perform procedures based on moral or religious grounds and sometimes even to those who refuse to refer a patient to a willing colleague. However, they can also put practioners under religious pressure, since once they are legally allowed to refuse to help a patient, a religious employer may force them to do so. And, as in the case of a Polish woman which is now awaiting trial, these laws can kill a patient. The Global Doctors for Choice was formed to try to keep this from happening again.
● By making one human right cancel others
“Freedom of religion”, when treated by the Vatican and others as an absolute, can end up violating other kinds of rights, as when “conscientious objection” is used to try to end access to abortion and contraception. [2]
● By rewriting the list of human rights
The Vatican wants to trim the list to deny that access to family planning and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of gender (including gay marriage) are human rights. [3] At the same time, the list is to be expanded in line with the Vatican’s aim to “protect life from conception until natural death”. This new “fetal right to life” has already been enshrined in the constitutions of the Dominican Republic, Hungary and most of the states in Mexico. The Vatican is also trying to get recognition for what it calls the “natural family”, a patriarchal setup where there is no birth control. In the name of “parental rights” the Church opposes both the religious and sexual self-determinatin of young people. [4] In other words, human rights are to be rewritten so that they faithfully mirror Church doctrine. [5]
● By claiming that “human rights” depend on God, (whose will is made known by the pope)
The Vatican claims that God is the source of human rights, which makes them depend, in practice, on the Church which claims to carry out His will. This leads to talk of “true human rights” which ― like Vatican talk of “positive secularism” ― in many cases happens to be exactly the opposite of what most people mean by these terms. This redefinition can be long and convoluted: in fact, this seems to be intentional. If the Vatican were to say simply: “Skip with human rights and just obey the Pope” few would listen. However because they are redefined in terms of “transcendent dignity”, “natural law” or “true freedom” people tend to lose the thread and be impressed. [6]
However, the basic idea behind human rights is simple: they’re not given to you by anyone or anything and therefore entail no obligation. They're yours just because you’re a person and, as such, have certain needs. (Other creatures, of course, have different needs. [7]) By contrast, the Church bases its version of “human rights” ultimately ― whether by way of its own “Natural Law” or its own interpretation of the will of God ― on Vatican doctrine.
And how much support does Vatican doctrine have, even among the faithful? We should not forget
the 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women who, just like other American women, have exercised their own consciences and availed themselves of birth control at some point during their reproductive lives. So it’s important to be clear that the conscientious objection to the regulation comes from an institution rather than from those whose consciences it purports to represent. [8]
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Vatican-Orthodox alliance to boost population |
After convincing the Evangelicals to join its pro-life campaign, the Vatican has managed to get the Orthodox Church on board, as well. The Orthodox Church, the world’s second largest Christian communion after the Catholics, has now aligned itself with Vatican population policy. And the one-time communist KGB agent, Prime Minister Putin, has also signed on. | |
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A biologist sets the pro-lifers straight |
According to Prof Guttman, arguments about “life” are a red herring. It’s really about keeping women “subservient” and denying them their human rights. And anyway, he says, the “pro-lifers” misrepresent the very concept of “life”, because eggs and sperm are just as much “alive” as people are. “All the talk about how human life begins at the moment of conception is sheer nonsense” — which doesn't stop it from being enshrined in the law of places like Kansas. | |
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Religious law vs. human rights: child brides |
Sharia isn't the only kind of religious law that permits child brides. Until 1929 Church of England ministers could marry 12-year-olds in Britain. And until 1983 a quiet loophole in Catholic canon law permitted priests to marry off brides of 12, as well. Now the minimum age allowed by the Vatican for young girls to marry is14. | |
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How faith-based social services do an end-run around human rights |
In the US and UK human rights remain on the law books, while religious organisations increasingly take over many state functions and are exempted from having to observe any human rights that they object to. This applies to religiously run schools, hospitals, social welfare agencies and prisons. Even state institutions like the military, which are not run by religious groups, have to fund increasing numbers of chaplains. | |
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Vatican attack on human rights through Canon Law, diplomatic immunity and other dodges |
The Vatican tries quietly to elevate Church doctrine above human rights. It has not signed some human rights treaties and in some others has made “reservations” which keep it from having to comply. This strategy gives the Church leverage, prevents it from being held accountable for priestly abuse, and protects its courts from charges that they violate the right to a fair trial. | |
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Conscientious Refusal of Care: Vatican hobbles competing clinics |
The Vatican forbids in birth control and abortion services in Catholic hospitals and tries to prevent them being offered elsewhere. It even stands to profit from its moves to get the United Nations and national governments to cut off funding for birth control and abortion in all clinics, since that removes the competitive advantage enjoyed by non-Catholic clinics which do offers these services. For an example of this worldwide strategy, follow the health dollars in the US. | |
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Cutting off human rights at source: Clerics influence Europe at highest level |
The unelected “faith leaders” of the European Union are successfully claiming the right, by way of prior “consultation”, to input into the laws of the EU. ♦ How the churches intend to increase their influence in the EU | |
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French baby's human rights cause confrontation with Pope |
The new baby caused a classic collision between a secular state and a theocracy: No, Your Holiness, she is not a baptised Jewish baby who belongs to the Church. She is a tiny citizen of France and has the rights of any other Frenchman.... | |
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Warnings from the EU stall the Slovak concordat |
Human rights must trump Church doctrines, says report of European Union lawyers. Medical professionals should not have an unlimited right to impose their beliefs on others by refusing to provide contraceptives, perform abortions, etc. — in cases where this effectively denied a patient treatment which is allowed by law. When the EU experts said that this treaty between Slovakia and the Vatican could violate international human rights, the concordat was put on ice — but not shelved. | |
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The Rights of Man reach an Ivorian village |
How can people come to see as a problem those parts of their own traditions which trample on human rights? An appeal to something more important than cultural or religious tradition is a revolutionary idea. This account by human rights workers captures the excitement on first hearing about human rights. The women of the Côte d'Ivoire today show what it must have felt like to people in Europe two centuries ago, as they made the thrilliing discovery: "We have rights!" | |
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Canon Law in action: Were the Papal States a “perfect society”? |
Until 1871 church and state were one in the Papal States of Central Italy. With the pope as absolute monarch, the Church had centuries to show the the world how to run a country in accordance with “Divine law”. Unfortunately, the Holy Father found that he needed a police state to keep his subjects from rebelling to try to enjoy the “Rights of Man”. | |
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How secrecy shielded the Legion of Christ from the law |
The secrecy vow removes Legion of Christ members from the protection of secular law. The Vatican did not intervene, despite more than 50 years of warnings about the founder Fr. Maciel. The Legion is too useful, as it goes “where the priest can’t”, bringing money, influence and new priests. Cardinal Ratzinger is shown on ABC TV in 2002 refusing to discuss the scandal. Yet the Vatican claimed in 2010 that even the priests in the Legion didn’t know what was going on.... | |
