The number of New Zealanders describing themselves as religious has been declining for some time. In 2018, the number of New Zealanders declaring that they were of “no religion” was nearly half of the population. In this increasingly unreligious society, the importance of our right to religious liberty is becoming less self-evident. This paper provides an overview of the arguments for why religious freedom is valuable and should be cherished by all New Zealanders, whether they are religious or not.

New Zealanders are protected from discrimination on the basis of their religious belief under the Human Rights Act 1993. The right to freedom of conscience and belief, as well as the right to manifest one’s religious belief, are both safeguarded from unreasonable governmental interference under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

These legal protections are necessary for a functioning, free, democratic society. Religious freedom allows us all to flourish by enabling exploration of the ultimate questions about our existence. It also allows a free discourse and exchange of ideas to the benefit of our civic culture, other freedoms, and our human potential. Free religious believers and communities provide institutional and ideological counterweights to the state and provide mediating institutions between it and its citizens. Religiously free societies tend to be more peaceful, suffering less violence between minority groups and the government, and between minority groups.

There are warning signs that our religious freedom is not as robust as it could be. There have been physical attacks upon believers, making it difficult for communities to practice their religion free from fear (especially Muslim and Jewish communities). There have been instances of policymakers ignoring the effect that proposed laws will have on religious believers, and courts have been unable to adequately grasp the religious interests in the case in front of them. There have been disturbing examples of the courts discounting minority religious views as being less worthy of protection than others, and the spectre of expanded hate speech laws has reappeared in the last few years.
In response to these pressures placed upon religious freedom in New Zealand, this paper concludes with three general recommendations:

1. Our judges need to be conversant in the substance of religious-based arguments. Judges need to be more open to determining between incommensurate public goods held by religious and non-religious litigants. A requirement that judges undertake religious literacy upskilling as part of their professional development would go some way to addressing this problem, as well as helping judges to acknowledge and address the real harm that forcing a person to act against their religious beliefs causes.
2. Politicians and other policymakers need to be more aware of the importance of religious freedom. As the number of believers declines in New Zealand, the “normality” of religious belief also declines. This means that public policymakers need to be more vigilant about the effect that their proposed laws will have on religious believers. We should introduce a religious literacy professional development requirement, for judges working on policy that will affect New Zealand’s religious community
3. All New Zealand citizens need to support it more vocally. Finally, all New Zealand citizens need to assume a greater responsibility to advocate for and protect religious freedom. The legal and constitutional protection afforded religious liberty rests, fundamentally, upon the support it derives from the community at large. This support must publicly come from all New Zealanders, believers and non-believers alike.

Freedom of religion is a central human right enjoyed by New Zealanders and legally protected from undue interference. This right allows all of us to freely inquire into the deepest aspects of human existence, to draw conclusions, and then to live in accordance with these conclusions. All of us—judges, politicians, policymakers, and citizens—need to appreciate our religious freedom and ensure that this right does not fall into abeyance through neglect and ignorance. This paper is a reminder of the importance of religious freedom so that we can renew our commitment to valuing and upholding this right.