BUCHAREST
Different ways of expressing freedom of
conscience and religion
National facts
Freedom of conscience, as a fundamental liberty, has a complex meaning
with several aspects. As an essential liberty, that of conscience is in command
of the existence and of such other types of liberty as: freedom of speech,
freedom of the press and the freedom of association, because these liberties
are mediated through the expression of one's mind, religion and opinions.
Paragraph no. 29 from the Romanian Constitution stipulates that each
person has the right to possess his/her own conception about the surrounding
world. One's consciousness cannot and ought not to be directed through
administrative measures. It should always be the result of one's freedom to
think and freely express one's thoughts. Any kind of coercion is a violation of
this natural and imprescriptibly right. That is why the Constitution stipulates
that no one should be forced to adhere to an opinion or to adopt a religious
belief against his/her convictions.
Freedom of conscience should be understood also as a factor of
spiritual continuity within the family, parents having the natural right and
obligation to take care of their children and of their education. The education
of children in the family is in accord with the parents' ideas and conceptions:
the relationship, child-parent, is a spiritual relationship in itself. The
parents bear the moral, social and sometimes juridical responsibility for the
deeds and acts and for the behavior of their underage children.
It is the same when the education of the underage children devolves
upon other persons than the natural parents. As regards these moral, religious,
political and juridical factors, liberties and responsibilities, the
Constitution stipulates that parents or guardians should have the right to
ensure, according to their beliefs, the education of the underage children for
whom they are responsible. This legal provision is not, however, respected by
sectarian organizations which advocate that children do not belong to their
parents but that God only entrusted to them their upbringing.
Many provisions in the Constitution refer to religious cults. One may
notice that the term "cult׳'
has two different meanings: one refers to the religious organization, the other
to the practice of ritual. Cults organize themselves freely, according to their
own statute. The Romanian Constitution includes provisions for relationships
between the state and the religious cults. Regarding these relationships,
historic practice and comparative law have always followed one of three
formulas:
־ the state as public authority
identifies itself with the religious authority;
־
the state may enter into an alliance with the religious authority;
־ the state adopts a position of
indifference to religion, avoiding either favoring or limiting them and watches
over the practices of the religious cults so that they should not disturb the
public order.
The provisions of the Romanian Constitution with regard to the
separation between Church and state guarantee the independence of the religious
cults, but the state binds itself to support the cults through the facilitation
of religious assistance in the Army, in hospitals, prisons, asylums and
orphanages.
Another priority, stipulated by the Constitutional provisions, concerns
the relationships between the religious faiths. By guaranteeing freedom of
conscience the Constitution proclaims the effective equality between believers
and unbelievers and cultivates a climate of mutual tolerance and respect
between believers and unbelievers. In order to maintain the atmosphere of peace
and quiet between the religious faiths proper to religion any forms, means,
acts and actions of religious quarrels between the faiths are banned.
From an international perspective, religious liberty is defined in the
Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, the International Pact regarding the
Civil and Political Rights and also the European Convention of Human Rights.
These are documents of great importance. The International Pact regarding the
Civil and Political Rights in paragraph 18 sanctions the right of each person
to freedom of thought and of conscience and religion. It asserts the person's
liberty to have or to profess a religion or belief by his/her own free will and
also the liberty of expressing his/her religion/belief, individually or in the
group, in public or in private through cult and rituals, practices and
education.
Nonetheless, no person and no religious organization is permitted in
the name of religious liberty to practice acts incompatible with human life,
physical integrity, good manners or Constitutional order. Organizations like:
AUM -- Supreme Truth sect, satanic sects, certain Yoga orientations and
techniques, the Children of the Lord sect and Jehovah's Witnesses carry on
cultic activities on the Romanian territory under the cover of religious
organizations recognized or not by the State.
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