ABSTRACT
Freedom of religion is the primary human rights protection related to religious belief and practice. Its form and interpretation vary from context to context, and it has been used both to protect and to colonize. The principle is contained in many constitutional documents as well as in international treaties, conventions, and agreements. Drawing on the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2017 Ktunaxa Nation decision, this essay focuses on religious freedom as a human right and examines the need to reconceptualize religious freedom beyond a Christian imaginary of religion in order to extend human rights protections to minority religious persons and groups. The issues that arise in Canada are common to other countries and although there are context-specific dimensions, the protection of religious belief and practice as a human rights issue has a long-standing history and remains a matter of debate, with issues such as religious symbols in public spaces, forced conversion, and persecution for beliefs and practices retaining currency across time.
