Saturday, November 10, 2007

UN report on rights of atheists

An interesting report from Asma Jahangir details some of the legal and cultural issues that non-beleivers face. It may be useful when deciding on legislation in some already-enlightened country, but it will have little impact anywhere that it is most needed, I'm sure. Here's a nice tidbit:
In several countries, religious groups enjoy certain exemptions from equality legislation concerning employment or the provision of goods, facilities and services. This is criticized as effectively allowing religious groups to discriminate against other religions and non-religious believers. This problem may increase when public services, for example in the health or social sector, are contracted out to faith-based organizations. Atheists and non-theists are concerned that contractual clauses may not be enough to protect them and religious minorities when seeking services from or employment with public service providers when the service provision has been contracted out to faith-based organizations.
Hmmmm...why does this sound so familiar?