Recovering the Dimensions of Dignity in Religious Freedom: Protecting Religious Proselytization in International Human Rights

Abstract This article addresses the challenge of conceptualizing the practice of religious proselytism in the context of international human rights law and its significance for the law of religious freedom. The author examines the evolving approach taken to religious proselytism within the landscape of human rights law, revealing that important aspects of religious freedom risk being lost given complex positive and negative views on proselytization. The author then explores the concept of human dignity and argues that there are relational and interactive dimensions associated with human dignity that are obscured in the international legal discourse of religious freedom. Recovering these dimensions of dignity will help address religious proselytization in international human rights law and reinvigorate the law of religious freedom.