Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS CONCERNING THE PROMOTION OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF IN ITALIAN FOREIGN POLICY

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15570274.2013.829984

1931-7743

Pasquale Annicchino,

Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography

Abstract Italy recently joined the growing group of countries with dedicated policies for the protection and promotion of freedom of religion or belief in its foreign policy. The records of two recent Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini and Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, show increased engagement, both bi-laterally and within the EU, on religious freedom. Italy played an important role in the development of new EU guidelines on religious freedom promotion, has been active at the UN in opposing resolutions on “defamation of religion,” and has recently established a unique, and possibly problematic, new institution, the Italian Oversight Committee for Religious Freedom. Keywords: Religious freedomforeign policyItalyEuropean UnionEuropean External Action ServicedefamationVaticanPope Benedict Notes 1. The EU Fundamental Rights Agency is based in Vienna and was established in March 2007 by Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007. 2. On the same day the Council approved the Guidelines to Promote and Protect the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/137584.pdf. 3. The use of this judicial doctrine allows the European Court of Human Rights to assume, on certain issues where there is no consensus among the different States that are part of the European Convention on Human Rights, an attitude of deference to those states in interpreting the meaning and limits of rights. 4. For example, by asking for information on his detention. 5. See CNN, “Pope calls for Pakistani Christian woman to be freed,” November 17, 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/17/vatican.pakistan/index.html. 6. The present members of the Observatory are: Massimo Introvigne (coordinator and former Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and discrimination against Christians and Members of others Religions), Diego Braisoli, Roberto Vellano, Attilio Tamburrini, and Roberto Fontolan. 7. It should, however, be emphasized again that the new guidelines, as the EU itself confirms, are not legally binding on EU institutions: “With the Foreign Affairs Council's adoption on June 2012 of the EU Strategic Framework on Human Rights, along with its Action Plan, which encompasses the adoption of new EU Guidelines on FoRB, the EU stepped up its commitment to address this issue. Such guidelines will not be legally binding, but politically underline that FoRB is a high priority for the EU” (Council of the European Union Citation2013, 93). 8. As highlighted by Heiner Bielefeldt (Citation2013, 34): “Particularistic identity politics, often hand in hand with political partisanship on behalf of specific religious kin groups, threatens to obscure the universalistic normative aspirations around which freedom of religion or belief has been conceptualized.” 9. Translated by Frederick Mark Gedicks and Pasquale Annicchino.