ABSTRACT
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines apostasy as "the desertion of a post, the giving up of a state of life". An interesting aspect of the problem of apostasy, in human rights terms, is that it both spans the individual and the collective dimension of human rights, and traverses the neat divide lawyers may imagine to exist between freedom to "have" and freedom to "manifest" religion or belief. As in Catholicism, apostasy under Islam is clearly distinguished from lesser sins: a person who denies Allah or who merely commits a great sin is a kafir. The gravity of the sin seems to be due to the enormity of concern with a one-time believer knowingly turning away from the truth. Clearly, the most comprehensive expression of the right to hold or manifest a religion or belief is that of articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights.
