The Foreign Office should improve its ability to engage religious actors and dynamics by appointing a director of religion and global issues who would be responsible for developing a cross-government religious engagement strategy. This is one recommendation from a report presented as a series of ‘policy messages’ or recommendations for diplomats and policy-makers in both…
The biggest threat to religious freedom is religious extremism, argues Knox Thomas in a blog published on Foreign Policy. He continues “The world must recognise this — and act.” Here is the full article: There is a growing threat to religious freedom around the globe. In an earlier era, the greatest hostility to faith came…
On 22 July the Government replied to Kerry McCarthy MP’s written question “To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his Department’s human rights priorities are for the current Parliament”. Minister David Lidington delivered a ‘holding answer’: “We are currently reconfiguring our work on human rights around three pillars to promote greater focus,…
Gulf News reports that the United Arab Emirates has issued a new law against any form of discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, creed, doctrine, race, colour or ethnic origin following a Decree by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It notes that “The law is intended to provide a sound…
FCO Minister Baroness Anelay of St Johns responded to the House of Lords debate (16 July), saying “Freedom of religion or belief and the right to hold no belief is a key human right. It is under attack in almost every corner of the globe… The ongoing assault on freedom of religion or belief is absolutely…
The Archbishop of Canterbury writes in today’s Times in advance of the Article 18 debate in the House of Lords “Religious freedom should mean the right to challenge beliefs as well as the right to worship.” The article reads: The village, as we approached it, was the normal collection of straw-roofed huts and a school….
“International religious freedom has received greater attention across the political and social spectrum,” says an analysis piece published today by Lapido Media. One sign of this, it says, is the recent honour given to Coptic Orthodox Bishop Angaelos, appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for his services to international…
On 30 June 2015, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in cooperation with Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) convened an international conference entitled ‘Freedom of Religion? The Price of Faith’ at the European Parliament in Brussels. Hosted by Csaba Sógor MEP (EPP), György Hölvényi…
Farshid Fathi has been told by prison officials that he will be released on 10 December 2015, Elam Ministries have announced. He had previously expected to remain in prison until December 2017. Farshid received the official notification on 4 July 2015. At the same time, it has been reported that Iranian Christians Bijan Farokhpour Haghighi and…
Lord Alton writes, in a special report published by Geopolitical Information Service AG, “The Islamic State terrorist attack, in which almost 40 holidaymakers were killed in Tunisia, accompanied by atrocities in France and Kuwait, highlights again the murderous outrages the group is willing to commit. Christians have been in the firing line of the IS terrorists and other terror…