Thoughts on Law, Religion, and Society

Ruth Junginger de Andrade is an attorney and mediator with nine years of conciliation and mediation experience in both legal and extralegal contexts. She has been a member of the São Paulo Inter-religion Forum for a Culture of Peace and Religious Belief since 2016 and a member of the Commission on Religious Freedom as part of the OAB/SP (São Paulo Order of Attorneys) since 2014.

The following is a translated summary of her remarks as a panelist addressing “Law, Religion, and Society” at the First Brazilian Symposium on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2022).

The Persistence of Religion

Law, religion, and society involve complex themes that require profound reflection. Since the beginning of time, religion and sociology have been interconnected—but the religious scene is changing.

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Law, Religion, and Society: Sociology’s View of Law and Religion

Marcio Henrique Pereira Ponzilacqua is an associate professor on the faculty of Ribeirão Preto Law School at the University of São Paulo, where he is also currently the vice director. His research focuses on the sociology of law and religion, including freedom of conscience and belief, socio-environmental rights, water rights, public policy and social inequality, ethics and citizenship, and institutions and communities. Ponzilacqua is also a Franciscan Friar.

The following is a translated summary of his remarks as a panelist addressing “Law, Religion, and Society” at the First Brazilian Symposium on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2022).

The Amalgamation of Law and Religion

It is necessary to understand that, since the beginning, law and religion have been amalgamated. At times, priests, Levites, and scribes were involved in the concatenation of society’s regulatory norms. And in such cases, it is easy to see that the values underlying them were exceedingly religious. “Religious ethics,” if we can call them that, at the risk semantic imprecision and anachronism, have always permeated the ethics of legislative texts and judicial action for legitimation, correction, or even instrumentalization.

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Panorama of Religious Coexistence in Brazil

Edna Vasconcelos Zilli graduated in law from Pontifícia Catholic University of Paraná. She is a specialist in environmental law and third sector law (Positivo University) and constitutional law and religious freedom (Mackenzie University). Zilli is president of ANAJURE (National Association of Evangelical Jurists), founding member of the Commission on Law and Religious Freedom of OAB/PR (Parana Order of Attorneys), and a member of the OAB/PR Commission on Third Sector Law.

 The following is a translated summary of her remarks as a panelist addressing “Religious Freedom, Coexistence, and Justice” at the First Brazilian Symposium on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2022).

Sources of Information on Religious Freedom Violations

In discussing religious coexistence in Brazil, data generated by the National Human Rights Ombudsman (Ouvidoria Nacional de Direitos Humanos) offers a starting point for understanding the bigger picture. In the last three years, for example, the agency received complaints about religious intolerance in different parts of the country. In the first half of 2020 they received 342 complaints; from the second half of 2020 to the second half of 2021, there were 823 cases; and in 2022 to date, there have been 111 occurrences. In these periods, five states produced the most complaints: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Rio Grande do Sul. Rankings follow the sequence listed, except for the second half of 2020 to the end of 2021, when Rio de Janeiro was in first place and the State of São Paulo was in second.

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