European Parliament Intergroup presents its first Freedom of Religion or Belief World Report
The European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance (EP Intergroup on FoRB & RT) presented its first Annual Report on the ‘State of Freedom of Religion or Belief’ at an event hosted by the Intergroup in collaboration with United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Speakers included the Chairs of the EP Intergroup on FoRB & RT and USCIRF as well as the Director of Human Rights at the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Petition drive to remove Dvorkin from expert analysis committee
DOCUMENT: OPEN APPEAL TO MINISTER OF JUSTICE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin is a sectologist. His public statements and other actions are able to evoke hostility on the basis of religious identity, division within society, and intolerance among...Anti-mosque act, FOB report
The close examination elaborated by the vice-chairman, Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, on behalf of FOB shows the picture of a regulation which, besides being conflicting with the Italian Constitution, violates also the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights and those included in the Guidelines of the FoRB programme issued by the Council of the EU, and that Italy is indeed called to respect. FOB also remarks that what has been underlined by the European Court of Human Rights on the occasion of several cases of disputes on the same subject is completely disregarded by the Lombardy law, opening further the possibility, in presence of all the prescribed requirements, of filing a complaint before the European Court in Strasbourg against the content of this piece of legislation.
Report on discrimination against spiritual and therapeutical minorities
The situation of minority religions and alternative medicine practitioners in France currently gives cause for grave concern. Although France has ratified the international texts on human rights, the reality in that country is quite different: freedom of thought is often denied.
Testimony on discrimination #1
In 1981 ADFI [Association de Defense de la Famille et de l’Individu, a French “anti-cult” group] lodged a complaint against ‘La Famille’. This resulted in a police raid against two of our communities in the south of France in 1993
Testimony on discrimination #2
As a Christian missionary for La Famille, we have been led to travel a lot and we have sometimes experienced difficulties in countries which were more or less welcoming. But I have to say, as a French citizen, that it is on French soil that I have had my most traumatizing experience.
Testimony on discrimination #3
Claude is a Protestant. The freedoms of his Evangelical Association are being more and more restricted due to the growing climate of fear of “cults” that is spreading in France today and affecting many religious groups. I represent the CLEF Association [Lyons Evangelization and Training Circle], which is affiliated with the French Evangelical Alliance. This Alliance is part of the Protestant Federation. There are about 5,000 of us in and around Lyon.
