There are high profile campaigning groups for freedom of speech, and in the US a well known constitutional right to it. But many people have barely heard of freedom of association. So what is it, and why is it so important.
Article 11 of the 1998 Human Rights Act declares that it is a right: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
The OHCRH includes this summary: “The right to freedom of association involves the right of individuals to interact and organize among themselves to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests.” https://www.ohchr.org/en/topic/freedom-assembly-and-association
Freedom of association means that I am free to meet with others who want to meet with me, and also free not to meet with them. If we share common values or goals, we may set up an organisation to enable us to pool resources, and may set entry criteria for that organisation, excluding those who do not share our values or goals.
Why does this matter. Well imagine some Muslims in a Buddhist majority country, with no freedom of association. The schools and other national institutions all have a Buddhist element to them. The Muslims want to have their own community, where they can help each other stand firm in their faith and values, worship Allah as the Quran instructs, and have their children raised according to their values.
But not freedom of association. That might mean that that are not free to opt out of the Buddhist institutions of the majority- they must send their children to a Buddhist school for example. In the UK, following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Act of Uniformity and other legislation meant you would be fined if you failed to attend an Anglican worship service weekly, with further penalties for joining a non-conformist (non-Anglican) worship gathering.
But there is a subtler problem with no freedom of association. If you cannot set up a group which can set its own membership and leadership criteria, then entryism can destroy any attempt to build the institutions that help communities further their goals and values over the generations. So back to our hypothetical Muslims in a Buddhist country. A group of them gather together and form a charity to promote Islam and education. They fundraise enough to purchase land, build a mosque and a school and community centre. But as they complete their fundraising, they suddenly receive a huge number of applications from Buddhists to join the charity- entryism, those who share different values joining an organisation to try and share it. Since they can’t exclude anyone (they lack freedom of association to limit membership to those who share their beliefs and values), the membership is soon majority Buddhist. And elections to leadership in the next round yield Buddhist leaders, who propose and win a vote that all monies raised should go to build a school and community centre for everyone and with no distinctively Muslim element.
That is why freedom of association is so important. Individual liberty without this freedom to create organisations and institutions with others who share your values make it hard to live out your faith or philosophy consistently, to pass on your beliefs and values, or to challenge the hegemony of the dominant worldview.
Christians should seek this freedom for themselves and for others who are minorities in our society. Freedom of association is often forgotten but it is foundational to a society that is free for minorities.
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