Sister Immaculate Joseph v. Sri Lanka

Sister Immaculate Joseph (plaintiff) was a citizen of Sri Lanka (defendant) and a Catholic nun. Joseph belonged to an order that provided teaching as well as charitable work for the community. The order served people without regard to race or religion. The order, which had existed for over 100 years, filed an application seeking incorporation, which would help members to carry out their mission in terms of sharing their faith and their work helping others. In Sri Lanka, incorporation for organizations only occurred through legislation. However, someone filed an objection in the supreme court to the bill proposing the order’s incorporation. The supreme court ruled that allowing the order’s incorporation would conflict with Article 9 of Sri Lanka’s constitution. The supreme court reasoned, without providing a factual basis, that permitting the order to incorporate with its combined mission of religious observance and provision of social and economic aid would necessarily create a situation in which inexperienced and vulnerable people might feel pressured, thus conflicting with their freedom of religion to select a faith of their choosing. Article 9 required that Buddhism was to be favored over all other religions and that the government had to protect and propagate the teachings of Buddha while safeguarding the rights of all religions. Yet the supreme court held that sharing Christianity as the order desired would hinder Buddhism’s very existence. The supreme court decided that Sri Lanka’s constitution did not acknowledge a fundamental right to share one’s religion. Joseph filed a communication with the Human Rights Committee on behalf of herself and 80 other sisters at the order, alleging a violation of Articles 18 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the covenant). Joseph highlighted two other cases in which Christian organizations sought incorporation and were denied and a significant list of other groups with combined missions that were granted incorporation. Sri Lanka relied on the supreme court’s decision for justification.