HREOC to scrutinise religious freedoms

The Human Rights Commission is to scrutinise how freedom of religion is used in Australia’s culture clashes such as debates about homosexuality and artificial reproduction.

Launching a discussion paper last week, Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma asked for people to tell him about their everyday experiences and observations of how freedom of religion is enjoyed in Australia.

This is easy for some, while others feel religion and human rights don’t mix, like oil and water, Calma said. The involvement of religious institutions in school curriculums and practices, religious and ethical concerns about scientific research, status of Muslim communities since September 11, 2001, the involvement of religion in debates about homosexuality or abortion, and our politicians declaring their faith on the campaign trail -” these are just some of the stories that involve us every day at the intersection of religion and belief with human rights.

Calma added the relationship between religion and culture was such that religious vilification could easily translate into racial vilification and discrimination.

Some rights associated with religion were open to abuse, former Pitt St Uniting Church minister Dorothy McRae-McMahon warned, such as religious exemptions that impinge on the rights of others if left unchecked.

They can be abused sometimes because we are exempt from vilification. I’ve never approved of that, and tried to persuade the Uniting Church to pull out of that. It could be removed without risking anything the Church valued, she told Sydney Star Observer.

Every citizen has the right to influence national life, but you can draw a line between people who say -˜we should do something’ because God wants them to do it, and people saying because it is ethical, it is just. You’ve got to make a case on a basis other than religious authority.

Usually that [abuse] is represented by discrimination against gay and lesbian people in our school systems, in ordination. Churches say -˜we are exempt from that so we can discriminate’.

Some progressive religious groups, such as the Christianity-based Metropolitan Community Church and some Jewish synagogues, are open about using their religious freedom to bless same-sex unions, despite those marriages having no legal status.

Public opposition to same-sex reforms and parenting rights during recent inquiries and parliament debates at both federal and state level has come almost exclusively from Christian lobby groups.

Others, such as the Dads4Kids forum, opposing the lesbian parenting reforms in NSW, were organised by groups such as the Fatherhood Foundation, which bases its principles on Christian beliefs.

Recent forays in politics by Catholic Cardinal George Pell earned a rebuke from the now premier Nathan Rees, who called them unacceptable.

HREOC’s Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st Century project is being run in partnership with the Australian Multicultural Foundation, RMIT University and Monash University.

info: Submissions to the freedom of religion inquiry can be made until 31 January 2009 via the HREOC website www.humanrights.gov.au/frb or emailing [email protected].