ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the means and sites used by religious rights activists in France and Turkey to challenge state secularism. It focuses on how these activists have been bringing cases to existing national and transnational legal institutions. The chapter explores the impact of restrictive national laws on the strategy of rights-based activists, how the use of a human rights discourse has facilitated access to different international platforms to seek redress beyond the boundaries of nation-states. It suggests that a rights-based discourse offers access to an empowering vocabulary, increasing the authority of complainants and allowing them to lobby and network with transnational activists. The chapter emphasizes that the possibility of bringing local issues to international platforms creates a dynamic, where key debates around the definition of secularism and the modern 'acceptable' religious subject are now also located in transnational spaces. It also compares the rulings of UN bodies and the ECtHR on secularism and the right to religious freedom.
