During his visit, the UN expert will assess the measures in the areas of truth, justice, reparation, memorialisation and guarantees of non-recurrence that have been adopted by authorities in Armenia to address the legacy of serious violations of human rights committed in situations of conflict, state repression or civil unrest.
Purpose: To inform the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief’s thematic report to be delivered to the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
HRWF/ CAP (14.09.2023) – CAP/ Liberté de Conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers, two NGOs active in Brussels, are deeply concerned about the situation of the members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in Algeria and have addressed a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Peaceful Assembly and Association before his fact-finding mission in Algeria planned from 6 to 16 September.
Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (24.09.2023) – Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in Algeria met today with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, during his official visit to Algeria from 16 to 26 September 2023.
Violence in Yemen in 2023 has seen an uptick , including an increase in targeted attacks and violent speech towards religious minorities. On 25th May 2023, Houthi militia stormed a peaceful meeting of Bahais in Sana’a and arrested 17, including five women, and continue to detain 11 of them incommunicado. In 2 June 2023, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights reported how the Mufti Shamseddin Sharafeddin, appointed by leaders of the Houthi militant movement, accused the detained Bahais of being apostates and saying “they should be killed,” if they did not repent Similar hate speech and incitement has been recorded in Yemen towards Christian converts and others since the start of the conflict and was raised during the virtual 53rd Human Rights Council parallel event co-sponsored by the Slovak Republic Bureau of the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief.
CAP Freedom of Conscience is a secular European NGO with United Nations Consultative Status, created in 1995 and dedicated to protecting the Right of Freedom of Religion and Belief. It combats all forms of discrimination based on religion or belief, inter alia, by alerting European and International bodies to abuses and violations of international standards. It collects testimonies of discrimination and human rights violations affecting religious or belief communities disseminating them to international bodies, to broadly raise awareness on the subject and to generate debate on the need for protection of freedom of religion or Belief. CAP Freedom of Conscience also advocates for any religious or spiritual group facing discrimination supporting the right to have their freedom of religion or belief recognized.
The assassination in Nara, Japan, of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
on July 8, 2022, was followed by a campaign of intolerance, discrimination, and
persecution of the Unification Church, now called the Family Federation for World
Peace and Unification (we will use “Unification Church” and “Family Federation
for World Peace and Unification” interchangeably here, as most media do,
although we are aware of the historical nuances and differences). During the course of this campaign, the human rights of the members of the Unification Church in Japan were seriously, systematically, and blatantly violated.
The statement submitted by CAP-LC on the intolerance, discrimination, and persecution of the Unification Church/Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Japan concerns an ongoing situation, whose evolution CAP-LC continues to monitor. Unfortunately, as compared to when we submitted our original statement, the situation is getting worse, and there are new elements we believe the Committee should also urgently consider.
