ABSTRACT
On a more fundamental level, the notion of a group approach to the right to conscience is rather important for the international human rights system given the emergence of minority communities and other groups within the state who assert the right to uphold their beliefs and way of life. This chapter begins to address the potential conflicts that arise from the absolute nature of the forum internum right to freedom of conscience, both between groups and its individual members and among individuals within the group and outside the group. More particularly, the group right to conscience is relevant for groups that engage in proselytising or if their belief system requires them to attempt to encourage other individuals to adopt the group’s beliefs. The distinction between minority rights as relating to the forum externum and the right to conscience to the forum internum of a group belief results from the current construct of the human rights framework.
