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The Ambivalent Relation Between Religion and Human Rights

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The Ambivalent Impact of Religion on Human Rights

Part of the book series: Religion and Human Rights ((REHU,volume 7))

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Abstract

Since 2012, theologians, religious- and legal scholars, sociologists, philosophers and political scientists have been working together in the international and interdisciplinary empirical project Religion and Human Rights. What is so unique about this project is that the same tools were used to measure attitudes and practices in all participating countries. In the whole program, more than 25,000 young people in over 20 countries were included in the research. A large number of country studies and comparative studies have been published as a result of the project, including in this book and the series Religion and Human Rights. The aims of the project are to develop components for a theory of whether and how religious beliefs and attitudes towards human rights relate, to conduct empirical research into the effects of religious beliefs and practices as well as ethical values on attitudes towards human rights among senior secondary school and tertiary school students, both religious and nonreligious, in various African, Asian and European countries from a comparative, cross-cultural perspective; and finally, to clarify and reflect the conditions under which, and the extent to which, religious beliefs and practices, as well as ethical values, contribute to the legitimation of human rights. This paper outlines the program and introduces the main concepts that form the theoretical framework for national and international research.

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Correspondence to Hans-Georg Ziebertz .

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van der Ven +, J.A., Ziebertz, HG., Zaccaria, F. (2021). The Ambivalent Relation Between Religion and Human Rights. In: Ziebertz, HG., Zaccaria, F. (eds) The Ambivalent Impact of Religion on Human Rights. Religion and Human Rights, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70404-9_1

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