by Alessandro Amicarelli — CESNUR 2025 took place in Cape Town last November 2025. Now several months later, we can see its importance more clearly.
Diplomats, scholars, advocates together
Those intervened brought real authority and substance to the conference.
Jan Figel, once EU Special Envoy on religious freedom, made the point simply. How governments handle religious minorities shows their true stance on democracy.
Massimo Introvigne chaired with his familiar method: facts placed in their proper social setting. His studies of African spirituality, above all Revelation Spiritual Home, fitted the location and field visits exactly.
Rosita Šorytė, ex-UN diplomat, showed the links from world affairs to human rights work and new belief movements. Religions shift quickly. Law and policy struggle to keep up.
Gordon Melton, from the US, and Eileen Barker, from the United Kingdom, central names in the field of sociology of religion, repeated what they have long argued: discussion of "cults" or "sects" demands fieldwork and voices from within.
Mark Nemes, from Hungary, took up how minority beliefs face identity strains now, especially where nationalism distrusts anything "new" in religion.
Karolina Kotkowska from Poland with Nicole Bauer from Austria and Maria Varde from Argentina examined together the influence of African spirituality worldwide.
The contribution of FOB – Freedom of Belief
Alessandro Amicarelli at CESNUR 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa
FOB – Freedom of Belief played a full part. President Alessandro Amicarelli attended with Rosita Šorytė from Lithuania and Susan Palmer from Canada, both members of the Scientific Committee of FOB. Their voices stood out in human rights discussions.
They cited actual cases and field accounts. Discrimination hits religious minorities every day. Press attacks, "anti-cult" language, blurry laws still strike at groups others dislike.
Research, local realities and African spirituality
Field visits marked CESNUR 2025 apart. Those attending met South African spiritual life first-hand, spotlight on Revelation Spiritual Home.
Alessandro Amicarelli at The Revelation Spiritual Home
Many found these as profound as conference talks. Such groups hold communities together, give purpose, guard dignity through poverty, violence, old wounds.
Rights live only through defence—in court, at UN, in open talk.
CESNUR in Cape Town was an open forum where experts from very different fields exchanged ideas permitting a focussed dialogue in a respectful and constructive way.
