Religion and Human Rights

Over the last decades, the phenomenon of the global resurgence of religion has posed new compelling challenges to the human rights discourse. According to the concept of the ambivalence of the Sacred, religion can be either a source for war, violence, violations of human rights, or a source for peace, peacebuilding, and promotion of human rights. Human rights experts have to face the ambivalent nature of religion in their daily work and analysis. This in-depth analysis aims to shed a light and provide specific knowledge on the relationship between religion and human rights both from a legal and social scientific perspective. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the place of religion in both the international and European human rights system. The second part analyses the place of human rights in three specific religious traditions: Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism.