ABSTRACT
Religious belief has played an important role in the development of contemporary concerns for the international protection of human rights. If one's religious beliefs dictate hostility to homosexuals or the subjugation of women, they do not cease to do so merely because this is deemed incompatible with human rights protection. The response to an assertion of religious liberty is contingent upon the nature of the belief, the claims which a believer's faith imposes and the context within which it is asserted. There is an easy set of connections to be made between religious belief and human rights on the one hand and, on the other, the legal protection of religious liberty and of human rights. The doctrine of human rights is claimed to be the single universal framework within which all views must fit. One particular limit to the boundaries of official 'respect' for religious beliefs lies in discrimination against women.
