Chinese law and the international protection of religious freedom

Journal of Church and State

Volumn 44, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 749-773

  Evans, Carolyn ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33750525657     PISSN: 0021969X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jcs/44.4.749     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. "The Present Conditions of Religion in China" (2000), available online at
2. Amnesty International, Peoples' Republic of China: The Crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "Heretical Organizations," 23 March 2000, available online at http://www.amnesty.ca/library/asal71100.htm
3. Nicole Jeanette Starr, "Who Asked You?: The Appropriateness of U.S. Leadership Promoting Religious Freedom Worldwide," Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 33 (2000): 987, 988-89, 1015-20
4. Darin W. Carlson, "Understanding Chinese-US Conflict Over Freedom of Religion: The Wolf-Specter Freedom from Religious Persecution Acts of 1997 and 1998," Brigham Young University Law Review (1998): 563
5. and Eleftherios Georgiou, "China: Where the Failure to Adhere to Domestic Political Laws Often Leads to Religious Oppression," New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law (2000): 355, 371-79
6. See a similar approach taken by Eric Kolodner, "Religious Rights in China: A Comparison of International Human Rights Law and Chinese Domestic Legislation," UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal 12 (1994): 407 at 408-09
7. People's Republic of China, Document No. 6, Some Problems Concerning Further Improving Work on Religion (5 February 1991)
8. See, for example, Chinese Religious Studies Centre response to U.S. State Department Report, available online at www.humanrights-china.org/focus/ focus20011121105816.htm
9. Bahiyyih Tahzib, Freedom of Religion or Belief: Ensuring Effective International Legal Protection (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996), 66-67
10. Brice Dickson, "The United Nations and Freedom of Religion," International and Comparative Law Quarterly 44 (1995): 327
11. Myres McDougal, Harold Lasswell, and Lung-chu Cheng, "The Right to Religious Freedom and World Public Order: The Emerging Norm of Non-Discrimination," Michigan Law Review 74 (1976): 865
12. and R.S. Clark, "The United Nations and Religious Freedom," New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 11 (1978): 197 at 199
13. Martin Scheinin, Article 18, in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Commentary, eds. Asbjørn Eide, et al. (Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1992), 266
14. Clark, "The United Nations and Religious Freedom," 200
15. Tahzib, Freedom of Religion or Belief 73-78
16. Abdullah An-Na'im, "Religious Minorities Under Islamic Law and the Limits of Cultural Relativism," Human Rights Quarterly 9 (1987): 1
17. and Donna Arzt, "The Application of International Human Rights Law in Islamic States," Human Rights Quarterly (1990): 202 at 209
18. G.A. Res. 543 (VI), 5 February 1952, para 1, UNGAOR, 6th sess., 375th plen. mtg, supno 20, U.N. Doc A/2119 (1952) at 36
19. Scheinin, Article 18 at 267
20. Dickson, "The United Nations and Freedom of Religion," 341
21. there is also the issue that under one interpretation of Islamic laws the death sentence is applicable to Muslims who convert, see Dickson, "The United Nations and Freedom of Religion," 342
22. Subrata Roy Chowdhury, Rule of Law in a State of Emergency (London: Pinter Pub, 1989), 221
23. Clark, "The United Nations and Religious Freedom," 205
24. Originally named the Special Rapporteur on Religious Discrimination, now the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, see Commission on Human Rights Resolution, 60th mtg, U.N. Doc E/CN.4/RES/2000/33 (2000)
25. Kevin Boyle and Juliet Sheen, Freedom of Religion and Belief: A World Report (London: Routledge, 1997), 180-81
26. For more detailed histories of the role of religion in China, see Carlson, "Understanding Chinese-U.S. Conflict," 563, 585-89
27. Kolodner, "Religious Rights in China," 414
28. and R. Lanier Britsch, "The Current Legal Status of Christianity in China," Brighton Young University Law Review (1995): 347, 348-50
29. Constitution of the People's Republic of China, art. 51
30. Kolodner, "Religious Rights in China," 423-55
31. Amor, Implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, ch. III
32. Council of State Decree No. 144, 31 January 1994, cited in Amor, Implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
33. Council of State Decree No. 145, 31 January 1994, cited in Amor, Implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
34. U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2000, "China (includes Hong Kong and Macau)," 23 February 2001; available from , 30
35. For an overview of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa from the point of view of its practitioners and some of its complaints regarding government behavior, see online
36. Donna Sullivan, "Advancing the Freedom of Religion or Belief Through the U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of Religious Intolerance and Discrimination," AJIL 82 (1988): 487, 491-92
37. United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 22 on Article 18 Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion, 48th sess., U.N. Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4 (1993), para. 2 (General Comment 22)
38. James Richardson, "Law, Social Control and Minority Religions" in Frontier Religions in Public Space, ed. Pauline Côté (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2001)
39. China's version of the trial of the principal leaders of Falun Gong in China can be found in Amor, Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance, Annex para. 7
40. ICCPR, opened for signature 19 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976) arts. 9 and 14
41. See generally, Carolyn Evans, Freedom of Religion Under the European Convention on Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 60-62
42. Both the Human Rights Committee and the European Commission of Human Rights have taken a generally liberal approach to the definition of religion or belief. See Evans, Freedom of Religion, 51-62
43. Written statement by the Society for Threatened People, Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, UNESCOR, 51st sess., U.N. Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/NGO/13 (1999), para. 2
44. Theo van Boven, "Advances and Obstacles in Building Understanding and Respect between People of Diverse Religions and Beliefs," Human Rights Quarterly 13 (1991): 437 at 442
45. Amor, Human Rights Questions: Human Riglits Questions Including Alternative Approaches for Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, para 78
46. Amor, Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance, Annexe para. 6
47. Available online at
48. See generally, Savitri Goonesekere, Children, the Law and Justice: A South Asian Perspective (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998), 89-94
49. Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 283
50. X v. United Kingdom, App. No. 7992/77 14 European Commision on Human Rights, Decs. & Reps. 234 (1978)
51. Document No. 19, The Basic Viewpoint on the Religious Question
52. Amor, Interim Report on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief para. 51
53. Amor, Human Rights Questions: Human Rights Questions Including Alternative Approaches for Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Annexe II, para. 3
54. See Document No. 19, The Basic Viewpoint on the Religious Question. While some concessions are made, the Party should not "be rushed into recruiting devout religious believers or those with strong religious sentiments."
55. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Background Note: China, January 2002; available from
56. Seventh Periodic Reports of State Parties, The People's Republic of China, U.N. Doc CERD/C/275/Add.2 (1996), para. 69-71
57. Editorial, "Unite with Religious Believers in Endeavor to Build Socialism the Chinese Way," People's Daily (Bejing), 13 December 2001