Cometan's concept of belief identity originates in the narrower term religious identity and constitutes a specific type of identity formation. The term belief identity is used in order to encompass a broader set of belief types whether these be religious, philosophical, astroncial, political or spiritual.

 

Although one's right to hold and express their religious and philosophical beliefs is protected under international human rights law, Cometan has identified that there is a significant lack of mutual recognition in the world for each other's belief identities. Cometan creates RoRB to produce the theoretical and practical methods for solving this ongoing lack of recognition which The Religious Recognition Project is responsible for overseeing.

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Belief identity is just one manifestation of religion and belief that FoRB seeks to protect and RoRB seeks to gain recognition for in various national and international as well as legal and social settings. Other manifestations include GBoBs which are groups based on belief (e.g. communities such as "Christians", "Muslims", "Buddhists" or "Calvinists"). Another example of manifestation of religion and belief is a BBO which stands for belief-based organisation. Although international human rights instruments continue to focus on protecting the rights of individual human beings and giving little attention to the protection and recognition of BBOs, from the recognitionist perspective, preserving the integrity of BBOs to operate freely is integral to protecting conditions for FoRB more broadly.

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Belief identity is the connection made individuals between what they believe, the institution that represents or conveys what they believe, the community of what they are a part as sharing that belief and the belief system as which they follow that embodies what they believe. Understanding that there exists different levels to the manifestation of belief in this way provides a clearer conception of how religion and belief manifest in the world and where such manifestations are in need of the most recognition and protection. It is the purpose of RoRB to establish a grounds for why and how greater recognition and thereby protection of belief identity could be gained in the world.