Notably, the equality posited by this provision is between citizens and not the equal
normative weight of rights and duties inter se.
Lastly, in the section titled, ‘Rights regarding Autonomy’, we find a curious expression
of rights and duties:
No citizen may be compelled to be present at any religious act or
ceremony or take part in religious exercise, or to use any form of
religious oath, or to disclose his religious conviction unless his rights
and duties are dependent thereon. Nor shall any religious instruction
be imparted in state educational institution.43
The force of this provision appears to be to restrain the State from compelling citizens
to exercise religious rights, take religious oaths or disclose religious convictions.
In order to preserve the autonomy of citizens, any such compulsion may arise only
where a citizen first claims legal rights or duties emerging from their religious status.
In this provision, duties are not used to evoke constitutional or fundamental duties.
Instead, it restrains the state from interfering with the religious autonomy of citizens
by compelling them to discharge religious duties.
The socialist tradition of duties is one that is more fully developed in other
constitutional traditions. The 1936 Soviet Russian Constitution had four duties, which
laid out the duty of the citizen to abide by the Constitution of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, to observe the laws, to maintain labour discipline, honestly to
perform public duties, and to respect the rules of socialist intercourse; to safeguard
and strengthen public, socialist property as the sacred and inviolable foundation of the
Soviet system; to serve in the army; and to defend the fatherland is the sacred duty
of every citizen of the U.S.S.R.44 These duties place a great emphasis on collective
action to better provide for both collective and individual interests.45 Real progress for
the individual comes from subsuming individual interests within the collective state
interests.46
In China’s 1982 Constitution, the guarantee of liberty is limited by stated duties.47
Citizens must perform duties prescribed by law and the Constitution,48 have the duty
to work,49 receive education,50 practice family planning, rear and educate children
Chapter II, Rights Regarding Autonomy, Article 33, Draft Constitution of the Republic of India
(Socialist Party, 1948).
44
Articles 130, 131, 132, and 133, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1936.
45
Thomas Towe, ‘Fundamental Rights in the Soviet Union: A Comparative Approach’ (1967) University
of Pennsylvania Law Review, June 1967, Vol. 115, No. 8, 1251, 1264.
46
Ibid.
47
Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens, Constitution of China, 1982.
48
Article 33, Constitution of China, 1982.
49
Article 42, Constitution of China, 1982.
50
Article 46, Constitution of China, 1982.
43
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Journal of the National Human Rights Commission, Vol. 22, 2023