Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience (CAP LC) and The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) welcome the findings and recommendations issued by the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) following its review of Pakistan under the Convention Against Torture.

In 2026, the UN Committee Against Torture issued a damning assessment of Pakistan, highlighting a vast gap between legislation and reality. Despite laws like the 2022 Torture Act, torture is practiced with near impunity. The report cites widespread enforced disappearances, abusive blasphemy accusations leading to solitary confinement, and severely overcrowded prisons. The Committee urges Pakistan to ensure accountability, amend legal definitions, and protect minorities and human rights defenders from state abuse and systemic neglect.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted three consensus resolutions at its 61st session on freedom of religion or belief (A/HRC/61/L.33), minority rights (A/HRC/61/L.20/Rev.1), and combating religious intolerance (A/HRC/61/L.9). All three texts extend monitoring mechanisms, detail state obligations to protect religious minorities, prevent statelessness, counter hate speech, and safeguard places of worship. Sponsored by broad cross-regional coalitions, these instruments reinforce existing standards and provide civil society with a sustained framework for accountability and advocacy.

This report examines how media functions as a systemic vector of religious persecution across three contexts: France’s institutional stigmatization, Pakistan’s state-controlled persecution of Ahmadi Muslims, and digital platforms’ unregulated religious intolerance. Using a Public Health approach, it provides evidence-based recommendations for the OHCHR, states, and platforms to dismantle media-driven persecution.

On the occasion of the 84th Session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) in Geneva, CAP Liberté de Conscience participated in a pre-session meeting held at Palais Wilson. This consultation with CAT experts took place prior to the official review of Pakistan, offering a platform to present our joint report with the International Human Rights Committee (IHRC).

CAP Liberté de Conscience has submitted a report to the UN Universal Periodic Review (53rd Session) regarding Freedom of Religion or Belief in Hungary. The submission focuses on the alleged weaponization of data protection laws to target minority religious groups, specifically the Church of Scientology. It details the NAIH’s order to destroy religious records—a measure upheld by courts despite a criminal investigation finding no wrongdoing. CAP LC argues this violates religious practice and due process. The report calls for halting the destruction of files, returning seized property, and reforming the discriminatory 2011 Church Law to ensure compliance with international standards.

On March 5, 2026, CAP LC and the IHRC submitted a joint report to the UN Committee Against Torture regarding Pakistan’s compliance with the Convention. The document highlights the systemic persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, arguing that state discrimination creates an environment facilitating torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Key cases include the custodial death of Dr. Tahir Mahmood, the life imprisonment of Mubarak Ahmad Sani for religious devotion, and escalating targeted killings. The submission urges the Committee to demand investigations, the repeal of discriminatory blasphemy laws, and immediate protection for detainees, emphasizing the state’s failure to prevent violence against this minority.

Discover why the European Union must urgently suspend Pakistan’s GSP+ status. MEPs and activists denounce systematic human rights violations, from the persecution of religious minorities to severe repression in Balochistan. While Pakistan benefits from EU market access, compliance with international conventions remains absent. This conference calls for immediate action to strictly link trade privileges with fundamental freedoms. Essential insights into the future of ethical trade relations and EU accountability.

CAP LC’s UN statement denounces the severe persecution of Christian Gospel Mission members in South Korea and Taiwan. Sparked by commercial documentaries, this “digital witch hunt” utilizes guilt by association to incite harassment, job loss, and educational discrimination. The organization urges investigations into these institutional failures and calls for regulating media platforms to protect freedom of religion and prevent hate-fueled human rights violations.

CAP LC and Human Rights Without Frontiers condemn Norway’s deregistration of Jehovah’s Witnesses as institutional discrimination. This act fosters stigmatization and contradicts the Durban Declaration. We urge the Norwegian Supreme Court to annul this decision and call on the State to ensure administrative practices uphold equality and do not target specific religious minorities.

At the UN Human Rights Council, AESFE highlights the alarming rise of intolerance in Pakistan, focusing on the imprisonment of former PM Imran Khan for nearly 1,000 days. The statement details inhumane conditions, including torture in solitary confinement, and expanded blasphemy laws fostering hatred. AESFE urges the Council and OHCHR to demand immediate compliance with UN opinions and the release of all political prisoners to end this systematic persecution and restore human dignity.

This statement condemns the arbitrary detention and torture of Egypt’s Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light members. Since March 2025, systematic persecution, enforced disappearances, and denial of legal rights have occurred. We urge the UN to investigate these grave violations and demand Egyptian authorities immediately release the victims to uphold international human rights obligations and end religious intolerance.

Discover why the European Union must urgently suspend Pakistan’s GSP+ status. MEPs and activists denounce systematic human rights violations, from the persecution of religious minorities to severe repression in Balochistan. While Pakistan benefits from EU market access, compliance with international conventions remains absent. This conference calls for immediate action to strictly link trade privileges with fundamental freedoms. Essential insights into the future of ethical trade relations and EU accountability.

CAP Liberté de Conscience (CAP LC) addressed the UN Human Rights Council (HRC 61) on the dangerous link between sensationalist media and violence against religious minorities. Applying the WHO’s “Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention,” we highlighted how media stigmatization acts as a precursor to physical attacks. Citing the “digital witch-hunt” against the Christian Gospel Mission and a recent hammer assault in Taiwan, we called for a UN expert group to monitor media bias and protect believers from persecution fueled by online hate.

Sensationalist media coverage triggers systematic violence against religious minorities worldwide. Following the Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention, stigmatization by mainstream and digital platforms—such as Netflix documentaries on Jehovah’s Witnesses or South Korean coverage of Gospel Mission—precedes persecution and violence. Recent cases include hammer attacks on Shincheonji members in Taiwan. We urge the Human Rights Council to establish an expert group monitoring media-driven discrimination to protect believers from state and online violence fueled by inflammatory content.

This statement draws urgent attention to the systematic persecution of Christian Gospel Mission members between 2023 and 2026. Following Netflix documentaries in 2023 and 2025, thousands of believers—accused of no crime—faced discrimination, doxxing, and violence. In Taiwan, 4,500 members suffered threats and public shaming. In South Korea, over 160 sworn statements document exclusion. Economic boycotts destroyed businesses; educators and professors lost jobs solely for their faith

This side event critically examines Pakistan’s GSP+ trade status, questioning whether human rights conditionality is being rigorously enforced in line with international obligations. By combining legal analysis with victim testimonies, it aims to expose the gap between treaty commitments and the on-the-ground reality for those affected by abuses.

During the 61st Human Rights Council session, CAP LC presented a written statement on the weaponization of tax law against spiritual minorities in Taiwan. It examines the Tai Ji Men case, involving perpetual tax bills despite judicial acquittals, resulting in sacred land seizure. The statement identifies structural tax administration flaws violating international human rights covenants, undermining religious freedom and due process. CAP LC urges resolution of the Tai Ji Men case and reforms ensuring taxation isn’t used discriminatorily against religious groups.

CAP Liberté de Conscience presented a statement to the Human Rights Council regarding Russian spiritual teacher Konstantin Rudnev’s arbitrary detention in Argentina. Arrested following misunderstandings and unsubstantiated accusations of being a “cult leader,” Rudnev remains in pretrial detention despite lack of evidence. He faces due process violations and inadequate medical care with declining health. The organization argues his imprisonment violates religious freedom and liberty rights, based on imported disinformation rather than actual crimes. CAP LC demands his immediate release on humanitarian grounds.

“1000 days of conflict. 1000 days of civilians suffering the first-hand consequences of the fighting”, opened Thierry Valle, President of CAP Freedom of Conscience, at the side event on Friday 27 February 2026, held at the UN Human Rights Council, as atrocities continue unabated.

Sudan conflict: civilians face executions, torture, sexual violence. UAE supports RSF forces enabling atrocities. States must end support, investigate crimes, prevent prolonged suffering

Sudan faces a humanitarian crisis with mass killings, sexual violence, and displacement. The UN documented genocide indicators in El Fasher and identified external support fueling RSF atrocities. Accountability remains largely absent despite ongoing investigations.

Human Right Without Frontiers, International Support for Human Rights and CAP Liberté de Conscience has submitted a joint written statement to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first session addressing the grave and systematic violations of freedom of religion or belief perpetrated against members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) in Egypt. Since March 2025, Egyptian authorities have detained numerous peaceful adherents of this religious minority solely for expressing their beliefs and possessing religious materials, subjecting them to arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance lasting over a month, torture, and prolonged pre-trial detention exceeding ten months without trial. The statement documents severe violations including electric shocks, beatings, denial of legal counsel, inhumane prison conditions, and crucially, organized religious coercion through visits by Al-Azhar-affiliated sheikhs explicitly aimed at forcing detainees to renounce their faith. CAP Liberté de Conscience calls upon the Egyptian Government to immediately and unconditionally release all detained AROPL members, investigate torture and enforced disappearances by security forces, end the misuse of pre-trial detention, guarantee fair-trial rights and access to legal representation, and cease all forms of religious coercion in violation of Egypt’s international human rights obligations.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a comprehensive report (A/HRC/61/24) on 13 January 2026, presenting an assessment of the human rights situation across Sudan. The document covers the period from 16 November 2024 to 15 November 2025 and was submitted to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first session, responding to Council resolution 57/2.

At the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, CAP Liberté de Conscience submitted a written statement highlighting the catastrophic human rights situation in Sudan and the urgent need for extended accountability. The submission documents heinous crimes committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), including summary executions, sexual violence, and mass killings in areas like El Fasher and the Zamzam camp, while noting the RSF’s systematic attempts to destroy evidence. CAP LC emphasizes the necessity of extending the UN Security Council’s ICC referral beyond Darfur to cover all regions of Sudan, ensuring justice for crimes against humanity nationwide. Additionally, the statement exposes the critical role of foreign actors, particularly the United Arab Emirates, in supplying weapons that sustain the RSF’s operations. Consequently, CAP LC calls on Member States to cease arms transfers to the RSF, condemn the UAE’s involvement, impose sanctions on perpetrators and enablers, and support international mechanisms for evidence preservation and accountability.