On January 26, the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Guido Raimondi, presented the activities of the ECHR in 2016 and the state of affairs in Europe (Press Conference Speech by President Guido Raimondi [in French] and Press Release).
By Pierre Barrucand – The phenomenon of religious persecution has been known through the ages, as witness the Bacchanals affair in Rome in 187 BC or even, if we may believe Aristophanes, the process against Socrates, accused of having wanted to introduce a new religion. These persecutions were particularly intense against monotheistic religions, even though they tolerated the practice of several ancient cults with which they felt ties.
FOB - The following news could be considered negative for the Lutheran Church, but that would be a superficial judgment. Perhaps it could be negative from an economic point of view, as it would be for the Italian Catholic Church, if they gave up the advantages granted to them by the Lateran Treaty. However, the independence of any church from any government and vice versa is, as a matter of fact, a much more valuable asset for every church and for every state. The Norwegian Lutheran Church receives support from its followers in the right proportion, and that is fair.
Friday, 9th of December Soteria International hosted the Spiritual Human Rights conference in Copenhagen. The Spiritual Human Rights conference is an annual conference focusing on Human Rights from a spiritual perspective.
This year the conference was co-hosted by Youth for Human Rights, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), and the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion (EMISCO) with the theme “How Universal is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”.
After World War II, the word “Righteous Among the Nations” (Hebrew: חֲסִידִי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, khasidi umót ha'olám "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") was a term used in rabbinic Judaism to refer to non-Jews who acted heroically, putting their own life at risk to save jews from nazi genocide of Shoah.
It is also an award bestowed from the Yad Vashem, the national institute for the Shoah memory, since 1962.
Yad Vashem has given these prestigious awards to 19 Jehovah Witnesses.
This interview stems from a meeting between professor Massimo Introvigne, Sociologist of Religions, and the FOB Secretary, professor Silvio Calzolari, happened during the recent scientific conference on Anatheism, held in Turin at the Lascaris Palace on 1 and 2 December, where they were both speakers.
Interview by FOREF Europe with Dr. Ján Figeľ, EU Special Envoy for the promotion of FoRB
HRWF (28.04.2016) – Human Rights Without Frontiers Int’l (HRWF Int’l) hails the decision of the European Court in a case filed against Romania by yoga practitioners of the “Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute” (MISA).
For almost a decade Soteria International has been raising awareness among international and European politicians and Human Rights NGOs about violations of the freedom of religion and belief in Romania in the case of the spiritual movement MISA and its founder Gregorian Bivolaru.