Religious Liberty Report

The World Evangelical Alliance

Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham (Canada)

 

The World Evangelical Alliance is the global network of Evangelical Christian organizations. We have member alliances in 127 countries around the world representing over 400 million Christians.

 

In 1992, the World Evangelical Alliance founded the Religious Liberty Commission. Rev. Johan Candelin of Finland, is the Executive Director of the Commission and it includes members from around the world. Some of the activities of the RLC include:

 

  • Monitoring religious freedom incidents around the world
  • Inform WEA network of religious freedom issues
  • Mobilize prayer through weekly email and International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (second Sunday in November)
  • Advocate for the persecuted nationally and at the United Nations
  • Publish academic reports on religious freedom
  • Maintain network of government officials around the world to advocate for religious liberty

 

The WEA RLC advocates for religious liberty for all, as a fundamental human freedom in accordance with Article 18 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Being a global network, however, our best information is about the plight of Evangelical Christians who are being persecuted for their faith. Where the church is growing, there is frequently persecution.

 

There are three stages that we have noted in persecution. The first is disinformation, often through the media. The second is discrimination, often officially by the government or by others whilst the government turns a blind eye. The third is outright persecution.

 

We have been tracking two type of governments that are most likely to discriminate against and even persecute those of minority religious faiths. The first of these is communist governments. In China, Myanmar and Vietnam, communist governments see all religion as a threat. The government sees itself as the only place people should turn to for everything. In both China and Vietnam, the governments have slowly been opening the door to official recognition of some religious groups under strict control of the government. But as soon as religious adherents start to ask for more recognition or for justice for their people, there is renewed repression. Often it is minority groups in these countries that are religious and this leads to double persecution. They are marginalized as a minority group and persecuted for their religious beliefs.

 

The second type of government is in countries where a particular religion is tied with nationalism. While this is most notable in India and Sri Lanka at the moment, minority groups in other countries have experienced this to greater or lesser degrees. In India, it is Hindu nationalist that have persecuted both Christians and Muslims. There are various kinds of discrimination against these groups, from having restrictive covenants on property that they may only be sold to vegetarians to not allowing Christians to adopt children. In Sri Lanka, it is Buddhist nationalists that have persecuted Christians, seeing them as a threat to traditional Buddhist beliefs. This has been exacerbated by the renewing of civil war.

 

One can see this type of discrimination and even persecution by Orthodox Christian believers against Evangelical Christians in countries like Eritrea, Ukraine, Greece and Ukraine to varying degrees. It is also prevalent in some Muslim countries, Pakistan for example, where being Muslim is tied very strongly with national identity.

 

Frequently, one finds laws in these countries that require registration of religious organizations and laws that place restrictions on conversion. These laws are in place to protect the place of the dominant religion. In some places, like Belarus for example, the registration laws are applied to restrict the practice of certain religions. That is, registration is refused to certain groups and without registration, the group cannot meet, cannot open a bank account, cannot rent facilities or purchase land.

 

We are also concerned about laws restricting conversions. Some Islamic countries believe that it is necessary to safeguard Islam by prohibiting conversion from Islam. Some countries, Yemen and Saudi Arabia for example, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam. Other countries have laws that prohibit “forced” or “unethical” conversions. In Sri Lanka, the proposed anti-conversion law was so broad that Christian relief and development agencies were concerned they would have to stop providing aid altogether.

 

Even in countries like Egypt, where people must list their religion on official documents, it is required to report a change of religion. This can lead to pressure to change religion, lead to discrimination against organizations involved in conversions, and lead to discrimination and persecution.

 

Given the realities, is there any hope for religious freedom?

 

There are many areas where advocates for religious freedom can make a difference. The new United Nations Human Rights Council may provide new avenues for advocacy. The Council is to have periodic human rights reviews for all countries of the United Nations. Where under the previous Commission on Human Rights, some countries were never called to account for human rights violations, all countries will now be accountable. However, it will be incumbent on religious freedom advocates to bring religious freedom violations to the attention of the Council.

 

Along with the new Human Rights Council, there is a growing global network of religious freedom advocates. There are new opportunities to share information around the world and mobilize activism. It is vital that advocates in a country be able to rely on like-minded colleagues to write letters of support and mobilize their governments to work through bilateral and multilateral diplomatic channels to pressure governments to change.

 

Speaking as a Canadian, I am aware that my government has a bilateral human rights dialogue with Indonesia. That means that Canadian religious freedom advocates have unique opportunities to raise issues related to this county with the Canadian government knowing that there is a forum where these issues will be addressed. The Canadian government is also active in encouraging the Sri Lankan government to avoid civil war. We must therefore raise the violations of religious freedom towards Christians occurring in that country so that they are part of any peace negotiations.

 

To be effective, it is necessary to act globally and to be aware of the international relationships that can help in any given situation. Above all, one must keep religious freedom high on the priority list of international human rights.