Supporting others’ conscience rights the reasonable thing to do 

More than seventy years after the advent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a watershed moment for the protection of human rights under the law, some rights remain universally neglected. A new Cardus paper “OUR INNER GUIDE: Protecting Freedom of Conscience” focuses on one of them: freedom of conscience.

A previous Cardus paper, “The Imperative of Conscience Rights,” proposed that freedom of conscience – understood as the freedom to live in alignment with our moral and ethical convictions – merits robust protection in a liberal democracy. Such protection is merited by the vital importance of conscience to the flourishing and ethical integrity of individuals and the societies in which they live. With this new paper we wish to move beyond that initial first step, toward renewing and cultivating respect for freedom of conscience in Canadian law and among Canadians.

Broadly stated, freedom of conscience sparks controversy in two contexts. The first is when a person refuses, because of conscience, to perform an action that happens to be lawful: the soldier who declines to work at a concentration camp, the pacifist who will not bear arms, or the physician who refuses to euthanize a patient. The second is when a person refuses to do something that would endorse a belief or cause that she conscientiously disagrees with: the journalist who opposes a directive to publish state propaganda, the public official who refuses to take an oath containing statements that he considers dangerous or untrue, or the politician who votes against legislation that she deems gravely harmful to the common good.

How, in a liberal democracy, should we handle these scenarios? When must conscience give way to other considerations in the public square? When should conscience take precedence?

Even when considering these questions, can we accept the fundamental premise that all of us would wish, if we were to find ourselves in any of the scenarios described above, to be free to follow conscience? We at Cardus would argue in favour of such an assertion: that this hope is common to all of us. How can we accept this as objectively true? Because of the immense value that we, as human beings, innately ascribe to living integrally. It is only reasonable, then, that we should support fellow citizens who find themselves in these scenarios – even if we disagree with their convictions of conscience. All of us naturally hope that our fellow citizens would afford us the same treatment if ever the tables are turned.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights captures this idea well by not only affirming that all human beings “are born free and equal in dignity and rights” but also, fittingly for the topic at hand, that they are also “endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

This outlook should be embraced by all citizens for the sake of individual flourishing, peaceful coexistence, and liberal democracy itself. Cardus’ new paper makes the case for that destination, and explores how we can get there. We aim to raise awareness of the value and significance of freedom of conscience in a liberal democracy, alert Canadians to the pressing need for this human right to be afforded due respect and protection, and propose ways in which that respect and protection can be cultivated and achieved.

Excerpted from OUR INNER GUIDE: Protecting Freedom of Conscience by Cardus.