Objections to Anti-Discrimination in the Name of Conscience or Religion: A Conflicting Rights Approach

Abstract

In the present chapter, objections to anti-discrimination in the name of conscience or religion are examined as instances of conflicting human rights. The paper sets out to test the author’s previously developed three-step-model for addressing conflicting rights cases, through four case studies involving conscience-based objections to anti-discrimination. These are: religious objection to same-sex marriage registration, religious objection to delivering services to same-sex couples: the case of a British B&B, rejection of a job applicant on religious grounds: the case of the Dutch Salvation Army, and exclusion of women from the ballot on religious grounds: the case of the Dutch SGP. For this purpose, the three-step-model for addressing conflicts between human rights is applied in a manner that takes into account the specificities of emancipation rights, as well as the teachings of procedural fairness scholarship.

Keywords: conscientious objection, religious freedom, human rights, anti-discrimination, equality