Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel Since the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, OSCE participating States have made specific commitments related to freedom of religion or belief.336 The Vienna Concluding Document (1989) deals with a range of related issues, including discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, extending protection to non-believers and safeguarding the right to collective worship.337 At the 1990 Copenhagen Conference, participating States committed to recognize an individual’s right to change their religion.338 These commitments were reaffirmed at the Maastricht Conference (2003)339 and in Kyiv (2013), where the Ministerial Council emphasized the link between security and full respect for the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.340 The Guidelines for Review of Legislation pertaining to Religion or Belief underline that, while, “most legal systems are highly deferential to the judgement of [...] military officials regarding public safety and efficiency [...] States are becoming increasingly sensitive to the rights of [...] soldiers to have access to religiously sanctioned foods,” and provide limited freedoms “for wearing of some types of religious attire, provided that it does not interfere with discipline [...] or efficiency in the military.” It also advises to permit, “when reasonable, access to religious books and spiritual counselling.”341 Article 18 of the ICCPR and Article 9 of the ECHR embrace “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and protect the right “to manifest one’s religion or belief”.342 Both provisions underscore the right to have or adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice, and the fact that this right covers the individual or communal exercise of religion or belief, in public and in private. Article 18 of the ICCPR stipulates that no one shall be coerced into a certain religion or belief, while Article 9 of the ECHR stresses that the freedom of religion or belief also includes the right to change one’s religion or belief. Unlike Article 9 of the ECHR, however, Article 18 of the ICCPR is listed as a non-derogable right in times of emergency under Article 4(2) of the ICCPR. This means that, even in in times of public emergency that threatens the life of the nation, the right to freedom of religion or belief needs to be facilitated and protected, and may not be unduly limited. As far as restrictions of this right are concerned, the UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 22 underscores that Article 18 distinguishes the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief from the freedom to manifest religion or belief. The actual 336 See Helsinki Final Act, stating that participating States should respect “human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all”, op. cit., note 9. 337 OSCE, Vienna 1989, op. cit., note 139, para. 16. 338 OSCE, Copenhagen 1990, op. cit., note 141, para. 9.4. 339 OSCE Ministerial Council, Decision No. 4/03, “Tolerance and Non-discrimination”, Maastricht, 2 December 2003, para. 9, https://www.osce.org/mc/19382. 340 OSCE Ministerial Council Decision No. 3/13, op. cit., note 10. 148 341 ODIHR, Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief, op. cit., note 276, p. 22. 342 On Article 9, see: Guide to Article 9 Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, last update December 2018), https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_9_ENG.pdf. See also: Carolyn Evans, Freedom of Religion under the European Convention on Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).