2025

by Fang Yongrui — He traveled to Korea’s Jeju Island with friends. Nobody escaped. All returned. But it was enough to go to jail.

It begins, as so many Chinese legal dramas do, with a perfectly ordinary act. A pastor buys a plane ticket, passes through customs, and takes his friends to South Korea’s Jeju Island—a visafree paradise better known for honeymooners than dissidents. They return home, suntanned and unscathed. Months later, the pastor is in shackles, accused of “organizing others to cross the national border illegally.”

Washington D.C. — The U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reiterates it’s call for the U.S. government to work with Pakistani officials to take measurable steps to amend or repeal its blasphemy law. Recently the Pakistani government banned the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The TLP has incited violent mobs to intimidate and attack religious minorities, even calling for the death penalty as punishment for violating blasphemy laws. This impacts members of the Christians, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and others.

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (1 December 2025) — At its annual meeting in Lahore, Minority Concern urged the Government of Pakistan to take concrete steps toward building a pluralistic and inclusive society by actively promoting Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s landmark address to the first Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947, delivered just three days before the creation of Pakistan.

Increasingly, countries have, or are legislating, instruments to ban the import of products made by forced labour. These include the US, Canada and Mexico. The EU Forced Labour Regulation, which bans the sale, import and export of goods made using forced labour, is the most recent piece of such statute. Given that the EU single market is currently the world’s largest consumer market, the Regulation has the potential to influence business practices globally, to prevent, end or mitigate forced labour, and to stop companies profiting from forced labour in their supply chains.

Faisalabad, Pakistan (24 November 2025) — During the annual gathering of Minority Concern’s Faisalabad chapter, the organisation expressed deep concern over persistent reports of forced conversions and coerced marriages of underage Christian girls in Pakistan, calling for urgent and coordinated action by Pakistani authorities, international human rights bodies, and civil society organisations.

Christian Daily International — Rights activists urged the European Union to investigate widespread human rights violations in Pakistan, including persecution of religious minorities, ahead of a review starting Monday (Nov. 24) by a key EU mission monitoring the country’s eligibility for preferential trade terms.

Forum 18 (14.11.2025) - The criminal investigation into four police officers who tortured and threatened to murder Jehovah's Witness Daniyar Tursynbayev in the southern town of Kentau on 13 August appears to be at a standstill. An official of Kentau Prosecutor's Office – which a court had to order to begin an investigation – insists that it cannot proceed until Tursynbayev makes his statement about the torture in person in Kentau.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and the Ukrainian civic initiative Don’t Fund the Russian Army (DFRA) have filed a criminal complaint to Spain’s National Court against Huawei Technologies, Hikvision Digital Technology, Zhejiang Dahua Technology and their Spanish subsidiaries. Prepared in collaboration with a Barcelona-based law firm, the complaint requests that Spanish authorities investigate potential corporate complicity in serious international crimes under Spain’s universal jurisdiction framework.

By Massimo Introvigne — The Czech Ministry of Culture has announced it will not proceed with administrative dissolution proceedings against the local Religious Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The announcement comes after months of scrutiny, public debate, and a flood of documentation submitted by the Witnesses, culminating in what can only be described as a resounding victory for freedom of belief.

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor — Two historic churches in Mosul, Iraq, have officially reopened after years of restoration, nearly a decade after their destruction during the Islamic State's occupation. The reconsecration ceremonies marked a rare moment of revival for the region's dwindling Christian population.

On Wednesday, local residents, clergy and international officials gathered to inaugurate the Church of Saint Thomas, a Syriac Orthodox site dating to the seventh century, and the Chaldean Catholic Church of Al-Tahira, also known as "The Immaculate."

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemns in the strongest possible terms the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its detention of Christian pastors across China.

On Oct. 10, Chinese authorities detained Pastor Mingri Jin and 30 other congregation leaders of Zion Church, one of the largest underground churches in China. This is just one of many recent events that have prompted USCIRF to issue this statement.

In a world where spirituality should unite, history tells us that the opposite has often been the case. This article, written by Prof. Pietro Nocita in concomitance with parliamentary hearings on the possible reintroduction of the crime of plagio in Italy, offers a profound and articulate reflection on the concept of religion, its linguistic ambiguities and its historical drifts.

HRWF (23.09.2025) – “CAP Liberté de conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers are deeply concerned about the fact that chaplaincy activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a number of Belgian prisons are in practice not allowed any more. Since 2019, Jehovah’s Witnesses have written six times to the Minister of Justice and have initiated legal proceedings due to this discrimination experienced in four Belgian prisons: Nivelles, Leuze, Dinant, and Leuven Central.

The much-vaunted freedom of the web is not so free after all, as evidenced by the European Chat Control bill to “monitor” its citizens' chats. In Nigeria, where Sharia law is rigidly enforced, sharing a song on WhatsApp that contains opinions about the prophet Mohammed, opinions not shared by Muslims who follow Sharia law, results in a death sentence by public hanging, as a warning to blasphemers.

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released the following report: China’s Persecution of Religious Leaders – Religious leaders in China, both independent and state-sanctioned, endure egregious religious freedom conditions. Religious leaders must conform to the Chinese Communist Party’s political ideology and submit to the state’s intrusive system of control in order to legally engage in religious activities.

South Korea’s justice system has once again revealed its fragility with the arrest of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, widow of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, in Seoul. Known to her followers as “Mother Han,” the 82-year-old leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification is currently recovering from heart failure, a fact the prosecutor disregarded when ordering her detention. In “The Arrest of Mother Han: Korea’s Unholy War on Religion and Reason”, sociologist Massimo Introvigne dissects the legal case, arguing: “The legal grounds for arresting Mother Han were absent. The charges are implausible and politically motivated. This is not a corruption case—it’s a purge.”

by Willy Fautre — On 26 August, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case Erikas Rutkauskas v. Lithuania that the religious freedom of a religious minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses had been violated for failing to give him access to a civilian service replacing military service. This is the second time in recent years that Lithuania has lost a similar case in Strasbourg. In June 2022, the court ruled in favour of another Jehovah’s Witness minister, Lithuanian citizen Stanislav Teliatnikov, who was living in Turkey at the time. He also refused military service in 2015 on religious grounds and sought an alternative.

In the following article, “Religiocide in Korea: The Attempted Assassination of a Faith”, sociologist Massimo Introvigne unveils and exposes a disturbing campaign of religious hatred and persecution happening in Korea.

Introvigne explores the legal and political siege against the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, generally known by its previous name of Unification Church.

This Korean crackdown stems from similar efforts started in Japan, where the movement faces legal dissolution.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in close collaboration with the international initiative Don’t Fund Russian Army (DFRA) and the French law firm Bourdon & Associés, has filed a second criminal complaint with a civil claim (plainte avec constitution de partie civile) with the Paris Judicial Court against the French subsidiaries of Chinese technology giants: Dahua Technology France, Hikvision France and Huawei Technologies France.

by Steno Sari — We live in a world where visibility counts more than truth, where those who remain silent and adapt are rewarded, while those who expose themselves are labeled as naïve or inconvenient. In this "liquid" society, relationships are often based on the fear of commitment, consensus is worth more than conscience and courage has become a rare commodity. I am not talking about the reckless courage of the unaware, but of the clear-headed courage of those who remain true to themselves, even at the cost of paying a high price.