Contents

Editorial                                                                                                                          5

HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELIGION

W. Cole Durham, Jr.

Perspectives on Religious Liberty: A Comparative Framework                                   7

The author’s aim is to elaborate a framework within one can see the range of institutional possibilities for implementing religious freedom in legal systems around the world, and to consider in the process a series of philosophical and practical issues raised as one considers various aspects of the framework. He begin describing the underlying cultural differences that create rifts and tensions wich can only be resolved by providing enhanced protection for religious freedom throughout the world. Finally, the author concludes by briefly summarizing some of the normative implications of emerging consensus on religious freedom.

John Witte, Jr.

Law, Religion and World Peace                                                                                50

Religion is an ineradicable condition of human lives and communities. The author develops this simple and counterintuitive argument, in three parts. First, he argues that all laws (including human rights laws) have necessary religious sources, dimensions, and analogues. Second, he argues that the modern movement for human rights law has impoverished, even bankrupted itself, by its conventional deprecation of the roles and rights of religion. Third, the author argues that religious ideas and institutions need to be drawn into a healthy regime of law, democracy and human rights, and gives illustrations from his own tradition of Christianity to illustrate this point.

Louis Henkin

Human Rights and Competing Ideas.

Religion and Other Traditional Ideologies.                                                                  70

According to the author, religion is not a single or simple idea, and its relation to the idea of rights is neither single nor simple. The major religions can fairly claim ancestry to values central to human rights: right and wrong; good and evil; justice and injustice: legality and illegality; the essential equality of human beings; the equal protection of the laws. The idea of rights reflects principles of interpersonal morality; the major religions reflected principles of interpersonal morality without an idea of rights.

Adamantia Pollis

Eastern Orthodoxy and Human Rights                                                                       80

This study scrutinises one aspect of the broad problem of a shared value system between western and eastern Europe; namely, the extent to which the religious heritage of Eastern Orthodoxy, practicated in the Balkans, Russia, and other East European states, is compatible with the Western conception of individual rights. The analysis will focus on, but not be limited to, Greece, the only Eastern Orthodox State currently a member of the European Community and never under communist rule.

DIALOGUE

Faith and Tolerance                                                                                                   98

A debate organised by the Intercultural Center of the Pro Europa League on the occasion of the „Week of Tolerance” in Tîrgu-Mureş. The participants — representatives of different churches and NGOs — discussed the problem of religious tolerance/intolerance in Romania.

CASE STUDY

Attila Varga

Constitutional Regulations of the Churches in Romania after 1918                                 115 After 1918 due to the constitutional regulations the Hungarian religions from Transylvania became minorities. The present study analyses the situation of the churches in different historical periods.

ALTERA PARS

Gabriel Andreescu

Witnesses of Jehova:

A Radiography of a Violation of the Religious Freedom                                           125

The Witnesses of Iehova were planning to organise an international congress in Bucharest between 19-21 July 1996. The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Teoctist sent a declaration to the press against this meeting. The General Secretary of the Romanian Government prohibited the meeting in Bucharest. The present essay describes the circumstances.

DOCUMENT

Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance

and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief                                                    133

The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam                                                       137

István Haller

Adaptation of Human Rights to the Islamic Tradition                                                  143

The author explains the reasons behind the adopting of The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights by the Islamic states, comparing with other human rights documents.

TRANSYLVANIAN CONVERGENCES

Dezső Buzogány

From Intolerance to Tolerance                                                                                  148

A description of the evolution of the philosophy of tolerance in Transylvania in the second part of the 16th Century. In January 1571 the principle of religious tolerance was proclaimed in Tîrgu-Mureş. Due to this, there were no religious wars in this part of Europe.

RESTITUTIO

Documents of the 1700 Coucil                                                                                  166

Greta-Monica Miron

The Religious Union and the Romanian Self-Consciousness                                        171

The author presents the circumstances and consequences of the religious unification with Rome and the forming the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in Transylvania.

Mihály Spielmann-Sebestyén

The Union with Rome in the Hungarian Historiography                                               185

A study focusing on the Hungarian Historiography’s positions concerning the birth of the Romanian Uniate Church in Transylvania.

REVIEWS

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, vol. 33/1                                                                          199 Grammatiche di Pace                                                                                                                201 Cross Curents, Winter 1995—1996                                                                                202 Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective                                                                  203 Religion and Human Rights in Europe                                                                               206

PRO EUROPE League

The PRO EUROPE League (Liga PRO EUROPA) is one of the most well- known civic NGOs in Romania, founded in the Transylvanian town of Tîrgu-Mureş (Marosvásárhely — Neumarkt), on 30 December 1989, immediately after the fall of the Ceauşescu’s dictatorial regime.

The PEL has become respected due to its involvment in promoting human rights, pluralism and multicultural values. From the very begining of the transi- tion, the PEL has played a significant role in the political reality of Romania, joining different civic movements and alliances committed to mobilize public opinion against the restauration of the former communist structures. In the spe- cific area of the multicultural society of Transylvania, the PEL has played an important role in monitoring discriminatory policies against minorities and in promoting tolerance between Romanians and Hungarians, a key issue for peace and democratic progress in Central Europe.

For more than six years, the PEL has organized an impressive number of workshops, seminars, round-table debates, summer camps, conflict resolution missions and meetings for teachers, local authorities, judges, prosecutors, stu- dents, political and civic leaders, has published an independent weekly and a series of booklets and brochures.

The quartely altera is meant to promote the PEL’s values among acade- mics, policy makers and the large public in Romania. It is one of the few Roma- nian publication focusing on the issue of diversity, ethnic, religious and linguis- tic diversity in the Transylvanian area, as well as european integration.

●Acest număr a fost realizat cu sprijinul Fundaţiilor Heinrich Böll (Germania)

şi BILANCE (Olanda), cărora editorii le adresează mulţumiri.

●Opţiunile exprimate în articolele publicate aparţin autorilor.

●Articolele nepublicate nu se restituie.

●Drepturile de publicare sînt rezervate.

Grafica: Mana Bucur

Tehnoredactare: László Zsolt Pápai

Culegere: Mihaela Ignat, Judit-Andrea Kacsó

Tipărit la SC. MEDIAPRINT S. R. L. Tg.-Mureş

ISSN 1224-0338