have showed their willingness to make a parliamentary group or a lobby in fence of common values
for these faiths.
The Catholic faith (which is losing adepts in favour of the Evangelical Church) has appeared before
court in behalf and helping the position of these churches, as well as on issues on ethics and
bioethics.
Sometimes the minority religions question the constitutionality of the 2008 Concordat between Brazil
and the Holy See (document attached), questioning: Do all religions have access to constitutional
protection?
A few minority Evangelical Churches have supported the project “General Law of Religions”, called
“Evangelical Concordat” (attached), to be discussed soon in the plenary (August 2013).
The last constitutional reform proposed, which the Christian parliamentary group supports, would
legitimate the faiths by themselves as promoters of an action of unconstitutionality.
Once again, the freedom of faith and conscience and its reception by legislative measures, as a
reuniting factor of religious minorities and majorities’ efforts in defence of their common interests.
Lastly, but deserving the merit of the first place due to its long tradition and arduous work
developed on dialogue, encounter and interfaith consensus is the case of Argentina.
May 2000, Argentina, the Secretariat of Worship called for an advisory panel composed by
lawyers and people recognised by their trajectory on topics of freedom of faith who belong to
different faiths and religious traditions, but without institutionally representing them. After finished
their duty, and in the private sphere, its members decided to found the Argentine Council for the
freedom of faith with the objective of keep working with the same spirit, dedication and interests on
important topics for the republic.
The CALIR is formed by representatives of many Christian Churches – Catholics and Protestants of
different origin –, of Jewish and Muslim communities. It is very active in its dynamic, permanently
developing politics promoting the freedom of conscience and faith for all groups and it is particularly
active denouncing the hostile or offensive situations perpetrated against any religious group, acting
with promptness and efficacy, shaming in public these violations and publishing related declarations.
It has organised an International Congress in 2008 in order to promote the right to freedom of faith
with participants of other religions, academic specialists as lawyers, sociologists, historians, and has
called for a second congress to be made in 2014 in Córdoba, to continue the advocacy for this
fundamental right.
Some of its successful actions of having promoted the support of all religious groups, has been the
draft of a bill, such as the Worships for the Argentine Republic, among others, which is available on
its website.
One of its objectives is the advocacy for the positive valuing of religion, encouraging the dialogue
and the mutual recognition between different faiths and religions and the cooperation between them