RICERCA ITALIANA     

Freedom of religion and human rights in Afrika

Università degli Studi di Firenze

Abstract

The project is aimed at:
- creating and putting at the scholars' disposal a database containing laws and regulations concerning freedom of religion and human rights in Africa
- analysing the collected materials with a comparative and critical approach in order to identify lines of development as well as cultural and institutional connections
- investigating the relations between said laws with the populations' religious membership also in order to focus attention on the cultural influence of religious laws on these legislations
- making use of the acquired knowledge to define a focused "policy of welcome" for immigrants coming from African areas
- contributing to a critical knowledge of the different African Islam

In order to achieve such results four research units will be involved in the collection of data related to African countries' laws concerning human rights and freedom of religion. This research will also take into account cultural, ethnical, geographical, economical and linguistic affinities.
The following phase of investigation will consider the continent as a whole.
The fifth research unit will have the task to analyse the impact of said cultures and religions on behaviours and needs of immigrated populations. In fact everybody knows that the religious membership represents for these immigrated populations a factor of identity that prevent them from >>>

Principal Investigator

Francesco ONIDA Università degli Studi di FIRENZE

Research Objectives

Aim of this project is to provide instruments of scientific and juridical knowledge on the subject of freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and human rights all over the African continent. In particular the special features as regards to the juridical field will be analyzed in the different geopolitical area of this continent (sometimes artificially divided) and its countries. An interdisciplinary method of investigation will be used both in the analysis and in the choice of the document. This method will take into consideration the role played by institutions, cultures, religions, history, economic trends (intended as a factor that pushes actors such as multinational companies, states, national bourgeoisies, populations to generate a change) in order to explain the choices made at institutional and legislative levels
The aim of the project is to provide an articulated and organized description of the constitutional structure of each country and of the legislation on the subject of freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and human rights so as to make the consultation easier. The state law as well as the customary law and their interlace with the religious laws of the continent's communities will be object of interest. In particular the Islamic law, the Christian communities' law and the law deriving from "animist" cultures and religions will be investigated. All said components present, in a number of areas, undiscovered secularized roots. In this respect >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

At the moment, in Italy the study of the legislation of the countries that are object of our research is not sufficiently analysed, especially in a systematic and comprehensive view.
The object of research in this Unit will be in the first place the identification and retrieval of legislative sources produced by the State, customary law, religious law which represent the whole legislation in force. The collected data will be put in an existing database and divided into countries. The researchers will be in charge to insert said laws in the official language together with at least a translation in one of the most used languages so as to allow the community of researchers to check the sources. The reference to abolished legislative measures will be necessary and frequent since it is of particular significance to understand the legal systems' development and the legislative and constitutional reforms now under discussion.
In this context, reference to the difficulties springing out of the pluralism of law sources and of the mimetic juridical environment will be necessary in particular with reference to central Africa. Moreover, the fragmentation of the social community on religious basis represents one of the most important factors that increase the civil conflict and it is also considered as an element of dissolution for communal civil life. This situation of civil conflicts gives rise to government interventions imposing restriction on civil liberties and human >>>