A first round of ethics approval was sought by Cometan for Religious Freedom & State Recognition of Belief from the University of Central Lancashire's ethics board in Spring 2021 and this was granted in April 2021.

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However, following additions made to the primary research methodology in November 2021 in the form of interviewing citizens who had actually experienced the effects of the misuse of recognition, it was important for Cometan to reapply for ethics approval.

 

This was because the new set of participants classified as part of Category Two needed to be anonymised to protect their identities from governments whom they were exposing during the interviews. A second ethics application was submitted on 7th December 2021.

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You will find on this page a several documents covering each part of my ethics approval application. For researchers, you can use these as examples to understand what it takes to gain ethical approval from a university in the human rights field. For general readers, you may wish to view these documents to understand the ethical measures Cometan had to undertake during his interview series to mitigate any risks to participants.

 

Please note: for those reading the documents, the highlights in red show the amendments and additions made during the second ethics approval application to demonstrate what is required if you are dealing with vulnerable participants who need to be anonymised.