2026

Our sister organization CAP Liberté de Conscience, together with Human Rights Without Frontiers and International Support for Human Rights, has once again defended the minority Islamic religious group Ahmadiyya Peace and Light (AROPL) in a written statement to the Human Rights Council. AROPL members are subjected to serious acts of intolerance and violence by the Orthodox Muslim community and the Egyptian authorities.

Scholars, religious leaders, and representatives of international organisations from eighteen countries met for lectures, communal meals, and visits, on the occasion of the 4^th World SangSaeng Forum hosted at Daejin University in South Korea from 23 to 27 October 2025. The programme was rich and varied including both keynote lectures by well‑known international scholars and parallel sessions on emerging religions, the ethics of reconciliation, and comparative spirituality, and also moments specifically devoted to interreligious dialogue with East Asian religious movements, as well as a field trip to the National Museum of Korea and an academic visit to Yeoju.

by Alessandro Amicarelli — Rev. Jesse Jackson's death feels, for many of us, like the end of a long season in the history of civil rights in the United States. For over fifty years, he was a famous name and a regular presence on television. Someone people expected to see turning up at times of protests, rallies, and anytime marginalised communities needed help and support. For this reason, most people still associate his face first and foremost with the civil rights movement. And religious freedom for Rev. Jackson was part of those battles, a pillar of human dignity.

Good news from Pakistan. The Punjab government has issued an ordinance effective immediately, setting the minimum marriage age for both boys and girls at 18. Violations of the law are now classified as prosecutable, non-bailable, and non-reconcilable offenses. The law applies to all Pakistanis, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The intent is to eliminate the barbaric practice of conversions and forced marriages perpetrated by Muslims to which young women (often minors who are still children) belonging to Christian and Hindu minorities are subjected.

On October 28, 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses who pray in groups are not committing a crime and therefore cannot be prosecuted, opening a loophole in Article 282.2 of the controversial Yarovaya Law. Now, the Russian political party New People, founded in January 2020 and considered “liberal,” has proposed draft laws in 2024 and 2025 aimed at restricting religious services, rites, and ceremonies within residential and non-residential buildings, thus limiting several inalienable freedoms, as illustrated in the following article by Human Rights Without Frontiers.

This innovative volume (Religion in Modern Education: Conflict, Economics, and Politics) explores the socio-political intersection of education with religion in modern society. The chapters of the book cover a range of case studies including Christian education, Jewish education, Islamic and Asian religious perspectives, as well as their interaction with a variety of ideological and political concerns.

Reports are emerging of an ongoing, massive campaign by Chinese police to crack down and arrest hundreds of Chinese house church members in Taishun County, Wenzhou City, in Zhejiang Province.

The latest crackdown on China’s house churches occurred between Dec. 13-18. Local witnesses reported via social media and other networks of multiple checkpoints, roving police patrols, and cash rewards being posted for the capture of house church leaders.

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reiterates its call for the Trump administration to include Egypt on the Special Watch List. Earlier this month, an Egyptian court sentenced a Christian man, Augustin Samaan, to five years’ imprisonment for ‘contempt of religion,’ based on Egypt’s blasphemy law.

FOB has been following the vicissitudes of MISA Yoga, Gregorian Bivolaru and the Stoian couple, and notes with regret that, despite the passing of the years, these vicissitudes have still not been resolved. The result is that some people have been imprisoned on charges that are as specious as they are defamatory, in line with the anti-cult ideology of the MIVILUDES and its acolytes.

On January 23, the Alliance for Democracy and Religious Freedom convened an emergency press conference outside Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office in central Seoul, formally announcing its establishment. The coalition includes civic and religious organizations from across South Korea and approximately 100 participants, including Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim leaders, legal professionals, university professors, and civil society advocates.

HRWF — It will soon be three years since Strasbourg ruled that Belgium’s system of state recognition of religions and belief communities was incompatible with international standards. Brussels goes on turning a deaf ear and does not make any proposal.

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor — Five Iranian Christians have been sentenced to a combined 50 years in prison for religious activities, including prayer, baptism and distributing Bibles, according to watchdog organizations. All five, including two previously imprisoned men and three women, were convicted by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court under amended articles of Iran’s penal code, according to Article 18, a United Kingdom-based organization that monitors religious freedom in Iran.