The Treaty Protection of Religious Rights: U.N. Draft Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief 12 Santa Clara Lawyer 1972

12 Santa Clara Lawyer 403 (1972)
The Treaty Protection of Religious Rights: U.N. Draft Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief

handle is hein.journals/saclr12 and id is 413 raw text is: THE TREATY PROTECTION OF
RELIGIOUS RIGHTS: U.N. DRAFT
CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION
OF ALL FORMS OF INTOLERANCE
AND OF DISCRIMINATION BASED
ON RELIGION OR BELIEF
John Claydon*
INTRODUCTION
For centuries intolerance and discrimination rooted in re-
ligion have had considerable impact on the course of international
affairs. Indeed, the inception of the present nation-state system in
the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 resulted from a series of religious
wars fought to fill the void created by the breakdown of the mono-
lithic Christianity of international society in the medieval period.
Even a cursory survey of matters considered by the United Nations
in the past twenty-five years demonstrates the extent to which re-
ligious differences continue to contribute to major and minor prob-
lems of world order. Such a list might include the following items:
religious persecution in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania, 1949;
the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan; the treatment of
Buddhists in South Vietnam, 1963; the actions of the People's Re-
public of China in Tibet, 1959-61; the Cyprus problem; the continu-
ing Middle East crisis; and the current situation in Northern Ireland.
In all of these cases the religious factor has operated in varying
degrees either to precipitate or to exacerbate an international crisis;
in most violence has been a component.
In recent years there has been an upsurge in multilateral
treaty-making aimed at providing more adequate international pro-
tection for human rights, but recourse to treaties for the protection
of individuals from religious intolerance and discrimination is not a
new phenomenon. As early as the Peace of Augsburg of 1555 the
principle of religious tolerance achieved unprecedented international
expression.' The Treaty of Osnabruck, part of the Peace of West-
phalia, ensured international protection for religious minorities
* BA., Carleton College, 1967; LL.B., Queen's University, 1970; Assistant Pro-
fessor of Law, Queen's University.
I See 2 D. HILL, A HISTORY OF DIPLOMACY IN THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPNNT
OF EUROPE 479-80 (1906).

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