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cinematographic films and, therefore, determines the acts of the Executive, the
Legislature and the Judiciary.
73.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, the Court declares that the State
violated the right to freedom of thought and expression embodied in Article 13 of the
American Convention, to the detriment of Juan Pablo Olmedo Bustos, Ciro Colombara
López, Claudio Márquez Vidal, Alex Muñoz Wilson, Matías Insunza Tagle and Hernán
Aguirre Fuentes.
IX
ARTICLE 12
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
The Commission’s arguments
74.
With regard to Article 12 of the Convention, the Commission alleges that:
a.
“The prohibition of access to this work of art with a religious content is
based on a series of considerations that interfere improperly with the freedom
of conscience and religion of the [alleged] victims” and of the rest of the
inhabitants of Chile, which violates Article 12 of the Convention;
b.
Recognition of freedom of conscience is based on recognition of the
human being as a rational and autonomous being. The protection of the right
to this freedom is the basis of the pluralism necessary for harmonious
coexistence in a democratic society, which, as any kind of society, is made up
of individuals of different convictions and beliefs;
c.
According to Article 12 of the Convention, “the State must take and
provide the necessary measures so that those who publicly profess their
beliefs, may conduct their rites and proselytize within the limits that may
reasonably be imposed in a democratic society”. This norm requires that the
State abstain from interfering in any way in the adoption, maintenance or
change in their personal convictions of a religious or other nature. The State
may not use its authority to protect the conscience of certain individuals;
d.
In this case, state interference does not refer to the exercise of the
right to manifest and practice religious beliefs, but to access to the classified
exhibition – subject to age restrictions and the payment of an entrance fee –
of the audiovisual version of an artistic work with a religious content;
e.
The state interference affected those who have beliefs related to the
religious content of the film “The Last Temptation of Christ”, because they are
prevented from exercising the right to freedom of conscience by not being
able to see the film and form their own opinion about the ideas expressed in
it. Moreover, it affects those who belong to other creeds or who do not have
religious convictions, because one creed is privileged in prejudice to the free
access to information of other persons, who have the right to have access to
and form their own opinion about the work;
f.
The organs of the Judiciary prohibited the exhibition of the film “The
Last Temptation of Christ”, on the grounds that the “perception of the