Congress of the Republic of Peru Approved [Historic] Law of Religious Liberty

The Congress of the Republic [of Peru] approved today, December 2, [2010] the bill [presently law] of Religious Liberty oriented to guarantee the fundamental right that everyone has to freedom of religion as recognized and protected by the Constitution and the international treaties ratified by the State.   

The act [introduced by] the Commission of Constitution, supported by its vice-president Édgard Reymundo Mercado, points out that the public and private exercise of this right is free and is subject only to such limitations as both the protection of the rights of others to exercise their public freedoms and fundamental rights, and the protection of the public order, welfare, and morality.

The bill recently passed prohibits any action or omission that discriminates against a person in reason of his religious beliefs, and precise that the educational institutions of the State will respect the right of the students to be exonerated from the courses of religion for motive of conscience or in reason of his religious convictions, without been affected their academic grades.

In the bill [now law] approved in a plenary session of the Congress of the republic of Peru, is also specified that the State will recognize the diversity of the religious entities and that, on equal circumstances, they will enjoy the same rights, obligations, and benefits.

By Edgardo Muguerza Florián, Alfredo Garcia-Marenko, and GC PARL staff