Learning From Reflection and Looking to the Future: Two Years on from the UN Report on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Indigenous Peoples.

The following article discusses the UN Special Interim Report and its significance to the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The article reviews how the UN Special Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief has been used as a critical tool for promoting and protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples globally by emphasizing the need for meaningful engagement with Indigenous individuals and communities in decision-making processes, notably on issues that affect their traditional lands, waters and resources and their spiritual practices. The article also discusses how the UN Special Interim Report was developed through extensive consultations with Indigenous Peoples, community groups, and various stakeholders with the scope of revealing the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples. Finally, the article will reflect upon the positive responses generated by the Report and the ongoing discourse to encourage further engagement with the findings.

Editorial Address & Advisory Board

The second issue of volume five of the Journal of the Council for Research on Religion (JCREOR) is a special issue, From Indigenous ‘Religions’ to Indigenous Values. Planned and realized in collaboration with Philip P. Arnold (Syracuse University), the Indigenous Values Initiative (IVI), and the American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), this volume offers a collection of responses and articles that speak to the themes and tensions noted in the Report on Indigenous Religious Freedom or Belief, presented by the United Nation’s Office of the External Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom or Belief, which we have gained special permission to republish here in full. This issue provides input on the report but also examines the restrictions and limitations imposed by the categories of religion and/or belief when working with Indigenous nations and communities.

Preface and Introduction: From Indigenous Religions to Indigenous Values Vol. 5 No. 2

The Office of the External Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom or Belief contacted Philip P. Arnold, the Indigenous Values Initiative (IVI), and the American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), and asked us to join a call to give input on a new report on Indigenous Religious Freedom or Belief. Numerous Indigenous NGOs, Indigenous nations, and leaders were on the call.

Intellectual Acknowledgement in Favour of Religious Freedom and Justice

This succinct essay addresses the issue of freedom of religion for Indigenous cultures. Freedom of belief cannot subsist without justice, i.e. equal recognition. By ignoring the intellectual achievements of Indigenous and other non-Western philosophies and non-Christian religions, scholarship (in the humanities and social sciences, as well as in interrelated education in schools, colleges, and universities) constitutes an important reason for the depreciation of freedom of religious beliefs and, thereby, injustice. I argue that the scientific and pedagogical methodology of the comparative history of religions (developed by theorists of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and continued and elaborated by non-Indigenous and Indigenous scholars and educators) should be included in education at schools, colleges, and universities to combat this structural inequity. A historical consciousness of intellectual culture worldwide would not only have an impact on contemporary Indigenous cultures, but also on cultures with an Indigenous heritage (as, for instance, Latino and Chicano cultures of the United States), and would contest antisemitism and prejudice against Islam. To exemplify the history of intellectual and religious multiplicity and complexity, I mention traditions of (ritual) time, writing and semiotic systems, moral ideas, political principles, and the (constitutional) governance of a few selected Indigenous cultures of the American continent to be further researched by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, and to be taught in schools and academia. Finally, I offer concrete recommendations for what is to be done for this new historiography.

Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, initiates a critical conversation within the United Nations system and beyond on obstacles and opportunities facing indigenous peoples’ freedom of religion or belief – a largely overlooked subject.

Indigenous Values Initiative Together with the American Indian Law Alliance Submits this Report

The present report is the input provided by the Indigenous Values Initiative (IVI) and American Indian Law Alliance (AILA) in response to the new report drafted in 2022 by Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom or Belief.