This House of Commons Library research briefing is published in advance of a debate on ‘International Freedom of Religion or Belief’ scheduled for Thursday 26 October 2017 at 1.30pm in Westminster Hall. The debate has been initiated by Jim Shannon. Jump to full report The freedom of religion or belief is stated in Article 18…
ratopati.com, Nepal’s ‘leading Online News Portal’ has published this article, written by Lokmani Dhakal, Member of Parliament, Nepal, and Chair of IPPFoRB Nepal Chapter, and David Anderson, Member of Parliament, Canada, and Chair of the IPPFoRB Steering Group. The full heading was Religious Freedom in Nepal – Teetering on the Edge of a Precipice Nepal is…
11 October Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent human rights violations against the Rohingya people in Burma. The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con) My Lords, we are deeply concerned by events in Rakhine State. The British Government have…
11 October 2017 Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has considered human rights in Iran. It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Buck. Many observers hoped that the election of President Rouhani in Iran would lead to an improvement in the subject matter of our debate:…
New reports by The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) and Asia Centre show that religious freedom appears to be regressing in Southeast Asia. Serious challenges have arisen in recent years across the region, such as in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, according to the reports. – The challenges are at least…
Some Saudi state clerics and institutions incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country’s Shia Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch said in a report released this week. The 62-page report, “‘They Are Not Our Brothers’: Hate Speech by Saudi Officials,” documents that Saudi Arabia has permitted government-appointed religious scholars and clerics to refer to religious…
A new report from USCIRF emphasises the strategic importance of robust U.S. engagement on these issues with ASEAN as a collective and the 10 individual Member States: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The countries of Southeast Asia—bound together in the regional bloc known as the Association of Southeast Asian…
Blasphemy laws are a global concern, present in all of the world’s regions. These laws, which punish expression or acts deemed blasphemous, defamatory of religions, or contemptuous of religion or religious symbols, figures, or feelings, have punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment and death. They also embolden vigilante groups who mete out their own extrajudicial…
Herders against Farmers: Nigeria’s Expanding Deadly Conflict is the title of a new report from the International Crisis Group. Propelled by desertification, insecurity and the loss of grazing land to expanding settlements, the southward migration of Nigeria’s herders is causing violent competition over land with local farmers. To prevent the crisis from escalating, the government…
URGENT QUESTION Yasmin Qureshi 5 Sept To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the recent violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar – full transcript below PRIVATE NOTICE QUESTION The Bishop of St Albans 5 Sept To ask Her Majesty’s Government what it is doing to…