Year 11 - Religious education
Competing and balancing rights
Freedom: How far should governments go to protect freedom of religion or belief?
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit is an opportunitiy to be aware of Freedom of Religion or Belief as a Human Right as articulated in Human Rights frameworks. Pupil will look at a historical case study to better understand how these rights may be protected or violated. They will apply their learning to modern case studies.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to identify situations where rights may have to be balanced against each other and make a judgement on this.
Key Notes
- There may sometimes be tensions between rights associated with religion and belief and other rights.
- The freedom to manifest religion or belief can be limited or restricted by the state.
- During the Covid 19 pandemic, places of worship were closed by the UK government.
- Rights may be balanced against each other in certain situations.
- We can identify competing rights and make a judgement on them using case studies.
Vocabulary To Learn
- freedom: being able to believe what you want, or not believe at all, and being respected for that choice
- limited: not absolute and may be lawfully restricted by the state in certain circumstances under strict legal conditions
- balanced: the process of weighing one right against another to decide how far each should be protected in a particular situation
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- The right to freedom of religion or belief is an absolute right.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
There may sometimes be tensions between rights associated with religion and belief and other rights. The freedom to manifest religion or belief can be limited or restricted by the state.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'freedom'
being able to believe what you want, or not believe at all, and being respected for that choice.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: The right to freedom of religion or belief is an absolute right. Correction: The right to have or change a religion or belief is an absolute right. However, the right to manifest this right is limited and in some circumstances may be restricted by the state.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 11 Religious education guide library.