ABSTRACT
As a Spanish territory, Peru was bound by the Constitution of 1812, which Spain adopted as part of the war of independence against the Napoleonic invasion. The Peruvian Constitutional Court has said that religious freedom, in its internal dimension, 'supposes the ability of self-determination of every person in accordance with their convictions and beliefs in terms of religious faith'. In its external dimension, it involves freedom for 'the practice of religion in all its forms, individual or collective, public and private, with freedom for teaching, worship, observance and change of religion'. The Constitutional Court of Peru has explained that not all differential treatment is contrary to the right to equality, because 'we are before a fundamental right that does not consist in the right of people to demand equal treatment, but in being treated in like manner to those who are in the same situation'.
