Overview:

• A focus is place entirely on registration of religion or belief in a commercial and legal context rather than in the context of existential recognition.

• Essentially, there exists no recognition system in the Bahamas for religious groups or belief systems.

• Although freedom of religion or belief is widely respected yet like in Australia, the recognitionist approach questions whether the Bahamian government is able to provide sufficient services to religious communities and organisations and whether it is able to develop a rich religious, spiritual and philosophical culture if it doesn’t possess a dynamic recognition system to facilitate this development.

Positive elements:

• Religious freedoms are broadly (though not universally) upheld.

Recommendations:

• Dissolve dormant laws (namely those regarding blasphemy).

• Establish separate systems for recognition and registration tailored to religion or belief rather than following those which are used for secular entities.

• Reverse the nationwide ban on Obeah.