FAITH & FREEDOM OF BELIEF-2019

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LIGHTING A PATH TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEFWhether they are perpetrated by nonstateactors or governments who areincreasingly curtailing human rights,the consequences for victims are severe.Believers and non-believers inmany parts of the world continue tosuffer from violence, persecution, anddiscrimination (even for instance inaccess to public services, education,and health). It is worth highlightingthat violence can also be perpetratedunder the pretext of a religious prescriptionor practice (for instance violenceagainst women and girls including“honour” killings, female genitalmutilation, early and forced marriagesor violence against persons based ontheir sexual orientation or genderidentity). Religion is also often instrumentalisedto legitimate violence. Wehave seen it happen before, and yetit is happening again – in spite of ourinternational commitments and ournational laws.Religious people and non-believersalso experience hurdles in manifestingtheir religion in public and privateand have been attacked in their placesof worship. Criminalisation of apostasyand blasphemy is another fundamentalhuman rights violation that manyindividuals face.The current political context is challenging.We are often faced with situationswere individuals are being persecuteddue to their religious beliefs(or for being non-religious) in conflictsenvironments where the institutionalframework of the State is too weak toaddress the human rights violations.Humanitarian relief and state-buildingmeasures have to be at the core of ouraction in these contexts. Finding commonagreements in the multilateralfora is also challenging. As the EuropeanUnion, we believe that workingtogether is the only way forward andeveryone who wants to work along thisline knows that it can count on the EUfor it. To fight both emerging and longstandingthreats, we should continueto make use of our existing diplomatictools while also identifying opportunitiesfor new coalitions and partnerships.Taking into account yourexperience at EEAS sofar, at an internationallevel, which region doyou think that still facesdifficulties in the freedomof religion?Violations of freedom of religion or beliefcan be observed worldwide, withdifferent degrees of intensity. We seehow individuals from all faiths as wellas non-believers are targeted aroundthe world due to their religion or belief.Often majorities in one country areminorities elsewhere. For instance, wehave seen during the last year an increaseof attacks against places of worship,whether it’s against Muslims in amosque in Christchurch, against Christiansin churches in Sri Lanka or againstJews in synagogues in Pittsburgh. In allof these cases we have reacted publiclyto condemn the violence and to showour solidarity with the victims.This is why the EU advocates for thepromotion and protection of FoRBglobally. For this endeavour, we haveseveral tools at our disposal. EU Delegationsaround the world monitorFoRB violations, including throughtheir regular contacts with faith basedactors. Subsequently, the EU raises itsconcerns for human rights violationsthrough demarches, statements orduring political dialogues with thirdcountries. We also engage with partnersacross the world in multilateralfora to find common solutions, in particularin the UN, and our developmentfunds finance projects of inclusive educationand interfaith dialogue.Over the past years, we have raisedour concerns for FoRB violations in ourhuman rights dialogues with countriesof the Middle East and North Africa(MENA), Central, South and South EastAsia, as well as countries of the WesternBalkans and of the “Eastern Partnership”.Our efforts are coordinated betweenEEAS headquarters and our EU Delegationsaround the world, in joint effortswith the EU Special Representative forHuman Rights and the Special Envoyfor FoRB outside the EU. In order to improveour understanding of FoRB andour capacities to act, in-house trainingshave been strengthened over the lastyears. To note that in the last EuropeanParliament legislature, the EU institutionsworked closely with the EuropeanParliament Intergroup on FoRB.While we have achieved results, wecannot afford complacency. Liaisingdaily with NGOs, Member States, andMEPs allows us to listen to new suggestionson how to constantly improveour work on defending FoRB.Is education an importantfactor for the newgenerations to learn respectthe others? Do youthink you should nameanother?Our message is very clear: violenceand discrimination based on religiousgrounds must stop, perpetratorsmust be held accountable and victimsshould be rehabilitated.Violence has not only to be condemnedbut also prevented. Preventing violenceand discrimination is essentialto obtain long term results. Educationis without any doubt a fundamentalaspect of prevention. For instance, weare aware as how in some countries,textbooks are used in schools to fosterdiscriminatory messages and curtailsdiversity. Accordingly, the EU has triedto address this issue in its developmentcooperation. In our political dialogues,we ask countries to stop discriminatorypractices in the education systemwhen we identify them.Preventing discrimination and violenceand building respect within societies isalso sustained by other policies whichtackle impunity and seek reconciliation.We can think of our commitmentto financing and supporting transitionaljustice programmes as well asproviding assistance for reforms of justicesystems and of the security sectoraround the world for instance.Share with us yourthoughts regarding theinitiatives the governmentsaround the worldand the EU need to takein order to go furtherand make the freedomof religion and beliefreality.26 2019 | OUR WORLD
FAITH & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM... in the last year several individualswho were jailed because of theirreligion or beliefs have been releasedfrom detention, after concerns raisedby the international community.Beyond local and regional situations, the work for humanrights is and must be a global effort. As EU, we believe thatthe United Nations is the natural forum to advance and protecthuman rights. Global rules and international agreementshould not be perceived as a constraint for some, but as aprotection for all. We also work actively with other regionalorganisations such as the OSCE and we firmly believe in theimportance of regional human rights mechanisms.The Human Rights Council in Geneva and the UN GeneralAssembly’s Third Committee in New York are pivotal in ourcollective efforts to promote freedom of religion and belief.Through those fora we have supported countries that wishto better guarantee their citizens’ freedoms, and highlightedegregious violations in need of urgent attention.For many years the European Union has led strong resolutionsfocused on freedom of religion and belief in both theHuman Rights Council and UNGA Third Committee. LastMarch, the EU led the FoRB resolution at the Human RightsCouncil, which renewed the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteuron FoRB for a further 3 years. The work of the UNSpecial Procedures is fundamental to monitor human rightsviolations around the world as well as to assess and advisegovernments on how to improve protections includingthrough legislation.Far from being static, multilateralism and UN mechanismsallows us every year to promote and protect FoRB throughnew tools. The establishment in 2019 of an InternationalDay against religious persecution (22 August) representeda good opportunity for all of us to publicly show our commitmentto tackling violence against believers and non-believers.Several EU Member States, and non-European countrieshave been strengthening their FoRB diplomacy by creatingmandates of Special Envoys for FoRB or by creating focalpoints in their ministries of Foreign affairs. This has alloweda stronger diplomatic coordination to discuss FoRB violationsand identify joint actions of public or silent diplomacy.Finally, defending FoRB requires investment into educatingabout religion and belief – and an openness to engaging civilsociety actors whether faith-based and to their contributionto the overall challenge of how we live together – here inEurope and beyond. With this aim, the High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini launched the Global Exchangeon Religion in Society on 6 September.The ‘Religion in Society’ approach recognises religion as animportant social force throughout the world. It emphasisesthe importance of engaging religious or faith-based actorsalongside other relevant and non-religious or more secularactors, to address the issues of living together in a globalisedworld. Unlike other approaches, which privilege the positionof belief and generally expect participants to ‘declare’ a faithidentity as a condition of entry, the “Religion in Society” approachmore easily takes into account secular, humanist, ornon-religious positions. Concretely, the suggested exchangeplatform will aim to connect and empower community voices,who as active practitioners in their respective (majority/minority) local settings are navigating issues like shared citizenship,belonging, and management of cultural diversity.OUR WORLD | 201927
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