Attempted Religious Conversion Is Not Racism

Federal deputies presented a proposal that wants to clarify in the Racism Law that the attempt to convert people should not be considered a crime of racism. This Wednesday (30), there is a request for the vote on the proposal as a matter of urgency in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies.

Law 7776/1999, known as the Racism Law, states that it is a crime to “obstacle, prevent or use violence against any religious manifestations or practices”, with a penalty of two to five years of imprisonment. PL 958/2023, authored by Márcio Marinho (Republicanos-BA), Capitão Alden (PL-BA) and David Soares (União-SP), aims to make the text clear that the attempt to “convert people to a doctrine, system, religion, sect or ideology” cannot be considered as a discriminatory action.

The justification for the proposal says that the way the text stands today “creates a certain legal uncertainty”. For “it opens an interpretative gap” that “can be converted into a cause of lack of protection of the constitutional value that it proposes to protect, which is religious freedom”.

Religious freedom gives citizens not only the right to manifest their religion, but also to change their religion or belief, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The request for the project to be voted on as a matter of urgency in the plenary was on the agenda this Tuesday (29), but it was not deliberated. If the application is approved, which should be considered at this Wednesday’s session (30), the rapporteur for the bill will be defined to present the opinion.