Religious Freedom for Whom? Ecclesiocentrism in the Design and Implementation of Colombia’s Public Policy on Religious Freedom

Abstract

Abstract

Colombia’s Comprehensive Public Policy on Religious Freedom and Worship (PPRF), adopted in 2018, made the country the first in Latin America to allocate public funds and a dedicated administrative structure to the promotion and protection of religious freedom. This article offers an academic evaluation of the policy’s formulation and early implementation from a public policy perspective, based on a qualitative documentary analysis triangulating official documents, party accountability reports, press coverage, judicial decisions, and an interview with a senior member of the MIRA party with direct knowledge of the policy process. We argue that the policy’s principal weaknesses, namely the absence of a clearly defined public problem, an undefined target population, and the lack of monitoring and accountability mechanisms, are not generic implementation failures. Rather, they are shaped, in part, by an ecclesiocentric conception of religion, in the sense developed by Thomas Luckmann and Cristián Parker, although they also reflect broader limitations of policy design, administrative capacity, data availability, and interinstitutional coordination. This conception is reflected, in part, in the policy’s political origins and in the legal framework on which it rests, particularly Law 133 of 1994. Because the policy’s institutional architecture tends to privilege legally registered religious entities, it provides limited mechanisms for incorporating non-institutionalized religious expressions, leaves the documented religious freedom problems of Indigenous communities largely unaddressed, and offers no clear response to violations committed by organized crime. We conclude by proposing two legally precise reform routes: a reform of the statutory law on religious freedom and an ordinary law providing the policy with legislative anchoring, a fixed budget, and accountability obligations.