Caribbean states have inherited—and reshaped—colonial approaches to governing religion. Since gaining independence, governments across the region have had to decide what it means to be “secular,” which communities the state treats as legitimate, and what legal steps religious groups must take to operate in public life. Those choices matter for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) because recognition and registration rules shape who can manifest their beliefs and how, for example, by building places of worship or providing pastoral care in public institutions like hospitals, prisons, and the military.

Across the Caribbean, several recognition and registration systems are formally optional (communities can exist and worship without registering), while a minority treats registration as mandatory by law or by practice. Yet “optional” does not automatically mean FoRB–friendly: unequal recognition, administrative bureaucracies, and disproportionate information demands often fall hardest on minority, especially non-Christian, communities including Hindus, Muslims, Rastafarians, as well as practitioners of African-rooted folk beliefs like Obeah, Myalism, Santería, Vodou, and Yoruba.