Book Review: Freedom of Religion or Belief. Ensuring Effective International Legal Protection
| DOI | 10.1177/092405199701500213 |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
NQHR
2/1997
explanation as to its context. For instance, on p. 641 Articles 16 and IX
of
the Dutch
Constitution, dealing inter alia with non-retroactivity of criminal statutes and statutory
limitations, are included. What is lacking is the text
of
the 1971 Act on statutes
of
limitation with respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity, without which the
meaning
of
the constitutional provisions may be easily misunderstood. Notwithstanding
such criticism Volume III is perhaps the most precious volume
of
all three. In more than
eight hundred pages a documentary history
of
transition processes from 1945 up to 1995
is made available. We must be very grateful to Neil Kritz for having provided it to the
world.
Daan Bronkhorst, a member
of
Amnesty International's Dutch Section, has been engaged
in research into human rights violations during the past fifteen years. He also had the
opportunity
of
visiting a number
of
countries that entered into a process
of
transition after
having been the scene
of
systematic violations
of
human rights by former political
regimes. His book reflects the growing involvement
of
non-governmental organiSations
with the issue
of
transitional justice in the recent past. It offers both an excellent
introduction to the problems involved in such processes and a vivid account
of
his
personal experiences and meetings with other people. The character
of
his book is similar
to Tina Rosenberg's The Haunted Land; Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism, also
published in 1995.
Bahiyyih G. Tahzlb, Freedom
of
Religion or Belief. Ensuring Effective International
Legal Protection, Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 1996, 600 pp .•
Monographs on particular rights and freedoms are still a relative rarity in the international
human rights literature. Their value is amply demonstrated by this book. It is not possible
to dig deep into the genesis
of
UN inspired norms that comprise the catalogue
of
universal
rights in the main human rights textbooks. They must cover so much in limited space. No
article, however specialist the journal, can pretend at comprehensiveness in its treatment
of
even a single right. It takes a book length study and the commitment in time and
dedication it entails to provide such comprehensiveness. That is what Ms Tahzib has
delivered in this excellent study. The downside should be mentioned and dismissed. The
opportunity to prepare a book
of
this scope is often linked to advanced study, in this case
a doctorate at the University
of
Utrecht. The published book comes trailing clouds
of
the
schema and self-conscious requisites
of
her research degree which will restrain its
accessibility except for the most interested of readers. But the notion that a book such as
this is read at one sitting or from start to finish by anyone is fanciful. It is an intellectual
resource for specialists to be mined for information about and critique
of
aneglected
freedom, which however, cannot be so simply described for the future. There is no other
single source in existence which has so assiduously tracked the history
of
the right to
freedom
of
belief, or which charts the dilemmas and options within the United Nations
over its further normative progress. In that regard it is a tour de force.
The author sets out to recount in exceptional (and enormously useful) detail the
particular story
of
how freedom
of
religion came to be included, defined and protected in
the international standards on human rights. That account is prefaced by a chapter,
Kevin Boyle. Professor
of
Law, Director
of
the Human Rights Centre at the University
of
Essex, UK.
256
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