“To you it has been given to know the secrets of heaven” – Matthew 13:11

International Immunities

Public Law 97-280 97th Congress

Congress declared 1983 as the year of the Bible thus recognizing the Bible as the Word of God and the contribution it has made to the peace and prosperity of the people of the United States. This is a must read! Click Here

1st Amendment to the United States Constitution 

Prohibits Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the right to petition the government.

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1: Constitution for the United States of America

Right to Travel and Privileges and Immunities  Clause

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

The Supreme Court has long recognized the right to travel from one state to another under the Privileges and Immunities Clause,1 as well as other constitutional provisions.2 For example, the Court held that a state could not constitutionally limit access to medical care to its own residents, and deny access to nonresidents, without interfering with the right to travel.3

In Saenz v. Roe, the Court characterized the constitutional right to travel as having at least three different components:

It protects the right of a citizen of one State to enter and to leave another State,  the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second State, and,  for those travelers who elect to become permanent residents, the right to be treated like other citizens of that State.

While the Court did not expressly identify the constitutional basis of the first component, it noted that the Articles of Confederation’s privileges and immunities clause explicitly protected the free ingress and regress to and from any other State. As for the second component of the right to travel, the Court found it to be expressly protected by the text of the Constitution through the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Saenz connected the third component of the right to travel to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause.

Resolution adopted by the U,N. Human Rights Council on 22 March 2018

37/9. Freedom of religion or belief

 Stresses that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, which includes the freedom to have or not to have, or to adopt, a religion or belief of one’s choice and the freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, and to manifest one’s religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance, including the right to change one’s religion or belief;

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (excerpts)

Read the entire ICCPR:

Preamble

The States Parties to the present Covenant,

Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Recognizing that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person,

PART I

Article 1

1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

Article 12

1. Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.

2. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.

3. The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present Covenant.

4. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.

Article 17

1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 18

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.

3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

4. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.

Article 22

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 23

1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

2. The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized.

Article 27

In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.

French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 1789)

(excerpts)

1. Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based only on public utility.

2. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

4. Liberty consists in the power to do anything that does not injure others; accordingly, the exercise of the rights of each man has no limits except those that secure the enjoyment of these same rights to the other members of society.

10. No one should be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious, provided their manifestation does not upset the public order established by law.

AMERICAN DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS  AND DUTIES OF MAN

 (Adopted by the Ninth International Conference of American States, Bogotá, Colombia, 1948)   (excerpts)

All men are born free and equal, in dignity and in rights, and, being endowed by nature with reason and conscience, they should conduct themselves as brothers one to another.

Right to life, liberty and personal security.

Article I. Every human being has the right to life, liberty and the security of his person.

Right to religious freedom and worship.

Article III. Every person has the right freely to profess a religious faith, and to manifest and practice it both in public and in private.

Right to freedom of investigation, opinion, expression and dissemination.

Article IV. Every person has the right to freedom of investigation, of opinion, and of the expression and dissemination of ideas, by any medium whatsoever.

Right to residence and movement.

Article VIII. Every person has the right to fix his residence within the territory of the state of which he is a national, to move about freely within such territory, and not to leave it except by his own will.