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…
71 of the world’s 195 countries have blasphemy laws. Penalties for violating blasphemy laws in these countries can range from fines to imprisonment and death. USCIRF’s latest report examines and compares the content of laws prohibiting blasphemy worldwide. Blasphemy is defined as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.”…
Department for International Development: Middle East: Internally Displaced People HL1053 Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received evidence that those working for (1) the UNHCR, and (2) other UN agencies, are failing to protect internally displaced (a) Christians, (b) Syriacs, and (c) Chaldeans, in Northern Iraq and Syria; and if so, what was their response. Answered by…
The announcement by President Trump that he will appoint Sam Brownback, Governor of Kansas, as the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom has drawn a wide range of responses. It was warmly welcomed by USCIRF: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the White House nomination of Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas as…
KARACHI: Freedom of religion has been protected in several treaties and declarations. Article 18 of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 says that every person shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or adopt a religion and freedom, either individually…
The “Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy puts human rights centre stage of foreign policy,” is the opening line of the FCO news release. It continues “This report focuses on how the government is working to protect and promote human rights around the world. It also sets out our 30 Human Rights Priority Countries…