Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Cyrus Cylinder is a clay artifact from 539 BC that stands as one of the earliest recorded declarations supporting religious freedom. This ancient Persian document describes how King Cyrus the Great allowed displaced peoples to return to their homelands and rebuild their temples.
Tertullian became the first known writer to use the phrase freedom of religion in his work Apologeticum around 200 AD. He argued for tolerance of all religious views before proconsul Scapula, expanding on the case for peaceful coexistence among different faiths.
Saudi Arabia and Iran topped lists showing highest overall levels of restriction on religion across multiple years of analysis. Egypt, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Nigeria ranked among top twenty-five most populous countries with highest overall restriction levels according to Pew's 2022 index.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights established freedom of religion as a fundamental human right recognized globally. On the 25th of November 1981, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects both theistic and atheistic beliefs while prohibiting threats of physical force to compel belief changes. In 1993, the UN human rights committee declared that article 18 protects non-theistic and atheistic views equally with religious ones.