2019

On the 15^th of November 2019 the All Faith Network, UK based Interfaith organisation that is an associate member of our Federation, organised the annual Interfaith Week event.

As stated on the event poster the initiative "celebrates the richness and variety of different religions", and also "underlines the commonality of basic values that all religions hold".

The killing of thousands of Jehovah's witnesses in the Nazi Camps officially remembered in Italy with the affixion of a plaque in Trieste at the "Risiera di San Sabba", a former rice mill transformed into the only Italian concentration camp equipped with a crematorium, where the Italian JWs were executed.

In fact along with the Jews, also political opponents, the Roma, LGBT people and Jehovah's witnesses were killed by Hitler's regime with the help of accomplices in other countries.

Here is an article taken from the website of our federated Association for the Defense of Human Rights and Religious Freedom (ADHRRF) exposing the violence against the Uyghur people.

Nearly half of the residents of a village in a Uyghur-majority area of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have been sent to internment camps amid a policy of mass incarceration targeting minorities in the area, according to an official source.

In 2015, Beijing was awarded the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. While the government of the People’s Republic of China has overseen preparations for the 2022 Games under the motto of “joyful rendezvous upon pure ice and snow,” the same state has also overseen the development of a network of concentration camps in East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang).

The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2019 organised by the OSCE ODIHR was hosted this year at Warsaw National Stadium from 16 to 27 September 2019.

The HDIM is an annual event gathering representatives of the OSCE 57 participating States and of a number of NGOs registered with the OSCE discussing relevant human rights topics.

During the last OSCE sessions on Freedom of Religion or Belief, we exposed the harmful activities of FECRIS (the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects) in Russia and its integral financing by the French Government. Members of FECRIS and of its Russian branch, the Saint Ireneus of Lyons Centre for Religious Studies which is affiliated to the Orthodox Church, have been waging for years a campaign against non-Orthodox minorities in order to eradicate them from the Russian territory.

Our organisation, the European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB) has been attending the Human Dimension Implementation Meetings for the last 5 years, and we are thankful to the OSCE for the space given to the civil society. As a secular entity, member of the International Religious Freedom Movement, we constantly cooperate with other like-minded organisations, both secular and faith based ones, and regularly carry out a constructive dialogue with the public bodies and representatives in different countries.

In this page you can find documents and videos about the activities of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB) and the associated NGOs, concerning freedom of religion and belief and human rights issues, at the Europe’s largest annual human rights conference. It was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in Warsaw, from 16 to 27 September 2019.

Hindu Ashram in Russia seeks help of Modi government as Christian fundamentalists attack their operations.

A Hindu Ashram in Russia, ‘Shri Prakash Dham’, is under threat from radical Christian organisations, claims Prasun Prakash, Director, Public Affairs, Centre for Conservation of Indian Culture, Shri Prakash Dham. Shri Prakash Dham has presence in Russia, Eurasia, Europe and the UK.

For the second consecutive year the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom was held in Washington DC, USA, 15-19 July 2019.

The Ministerial wanted and hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gathered governments representatives and experts from across the world.

A Letter of the European Freedom of Religion or Belief Roundtable in Support of the Asylum Seekers of The Church of Almighty God

To all members of the EU ParliamentA tutti i deputati del Parlamento Europeo

To all EU States Ambassadors to the EU

The situation of religious minorities in Russia has been a cause of serious concerns for several years. While Russia hosts high-level academic institutes and tolerant intellectuals, it is also home to radicals who believe that the Russian Orthodox tradition should be defended by cracking down on minority religions.

한국의 강제 개종을 근절해야 합니다 : 문재인 대통령에게 보내는 공개서한

Dear President Moon:
문재인 대통령님

We represent international NGOs and scholarly organizations specialized in researching religious pluralism and new religious movements throughout the world, and advocating for religious liberty.

우리는 종교 다원주의와 세계의 새로운 종교 운동을 연구하고 종교 자유를 옹호하는 국제 민간단체와 학술 단체를 대표합니다.

Originally published on July 5, 2019 by New Europe, The European political newspaper.

Belgian Cardinal Jozef De Kesel sat down with New Europe to discuss the role of the Catholic Church in today’s Europe, where pluralism and secularism have changed the dynamic between Europe’s citizens and their relationship with one of the continent’s oldest institutions.

Orel Oblast court upholds sentence of Dennis Christensen

Orlovskie Novosti (23.05.2019) – On 23 May, the Orel oblast court left in force the sentence of the Zheleznodorozhny district court with respect to Danish citizen Dennis Christensen, who was found guilty of extremism and sentenced to six years imprisonment, an Orlovskie Novosti correspondent reports.

Ten NGOs write to the new president of Kazakhstan demanding freedom and protection for a woman who escaped from China and the activist who defended her.

His Excellency
The Hon. Mr Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

by Nicola Colaianni
Former councilor of the Supreme Court of Cassation and full professor of ecclesiastic law, University of Bari

Freedom of conscience, religion and thought is the most fragile and vulnerable of all because it can be compressed and suppressed even subliminally, with messages and stimuli below the perception of the subjects. And the offense can come, not only from the public authorities, but also from the same communities in which individuals perform, in particular, their religious personality.

by Massimo Introvigne (thanks to www.neweurope.eu)

In 2018, two Italian journalists, Flavia Piccinni and Carmine Gazzanni, published a mediocre book called Nella setta (In the Cult). It included the usual laundry list of vituperations against the “cults.” The language was carefully chosen to de-humanise the members of religions the authors did not like. For instance, in one of the first chapters, the journalists described their visit to the Church of Scientology in Milan. The female Scientologist who welcomed them was described as having “alligator-like” eyes coupled with “horse-like” teeth.

President raises issue after meeting Chinese head of State

(ANSA) - Rome, March 22 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella raised the issue of human rights in a statement he made alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping after the two heads of State met in Rome on Friday. "In the light of Italy's mandate on the UN Human Rights Council, I would like to hope that constructive dialogue can continue on such important issues at the session of the EU-China dialogue on human rights that will take place in Brussels following the one last July in Beijing," Mattarella said.

The prominent scholar and expert of religious movements Massimo Introvigne reported in this article the Chinese reactions to the heavy criticisms expressed in the annual report on Human Rights of the US State Department. It is at least paradoxical that the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party reacted by accusing the US of violating human rights. It is not that the United States on the issue of human rights are exempted from criticisms, at least, for example, with regard to the death penalty, which has been definitively abolished only in 19 out of 50 the States but the comparison to China does not hold up.