As the case of the 101 detained members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in Turkey continues to gain momentum on the international level, their case is being brought  to EU government delegations at the United Nations Human  Rights Council.

In a side-event of the 54th session of the Human Rights Council in Germany, director of CAP Freedom of Conscience, Thierry Valle, has delivered an oral statement emphasizing the urgent need to grant asylum/humanitarian visas to the 101 members through EU consulates in Turkey as the only way available means to safeguard their right to freedom of religion and their right to life and freedom from inhumane or degrading treatment. 

We, together with United Sikhs welcome the efforts made by France to combat stigmatization and discrimination against minorities since its last UPR.

We remain concerned about France’s policies on freedom of religion and belief, which are leading to a climate of religious intolerance, community withdrawal, hate speech and hate crimes.

As stated in our latest contribution to the OSCE 23 Report on hate crimes, the French policy act as a catalyst for intolerance, in violation of international conventions such as the Durban Declaration.

We are deeply concerned about the recent transfer of 6 billion dollars in Iranian assets from South Korea to the Swiss Central Bank.

Although Reuters has reported that Iran’s use of the funds is explicitly limited to humanitarian aid, we are concerned about their misuse and are shocked that a nation that continually violates the fundamental rights of its citizens could benefit from such a substantial economic measure.

Since May of this year, over 100 Ahmadis from various countries where they were heavily persecuted, have been detained by the Turkish authorities in Edirne Immigration Detention Center. They want to apply for asylum in an EU country.

Those people from the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light do not want to stay in Turkey, another Muslim majority country, where people also consider them infidels and treat them as such.

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 Liberté de conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers are deeply concerned about the Ukrainian children who were taken away against their will from the Ukrainian occupied territories to Russia in the framework of the war and whose parents are desperately in search of them.  Both NGOs strongly support the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General, who urges

Recognizing that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for the 193 member states of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, as shown in the Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting, presented by five NGOs during a World Summit in 2021;

We, together with the NGO Stop Amhara Genocide, have continuously alerted this Council that the Tigray conflict was an opportunity for the Ethiopian government to intensify the ethnic cleansing of the Amhara people started under TPLF regime.

We are deeply concerned about cases of violations of freedom of expression and the misuse of military justice to repress activists and “political dissidents” in Lebanon.

Amendments to the Criminal Code allow the Permanent Military Court to hear civil cases related to national security, with far fewer protections for the defendants.

The use of law and military justice to repress “political dissent” in lebanon: the Omar Harfouch case

CAP Liberté de conscience is deeply concerned about the escalating crisis and human rights violations that are devastating the Amhara region in Ethiopia.

We are deeply shocked by the escalation of violence in the conflict in Sudan, which has reached unprecedented levels of atrocity, without any of the points in the resolution adopted by this Council on May 11 having led to pacification.

CAP Liberté de Conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers are deeply concerned about the situation of over 100 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light detained for 90 days as of 23 August at the Edirne Migration Center in Turkey, for exercising their legal right to claim asylum.

In particular, the authors of joint submission 4 noted the use of these laws to close a number of places of worship and recommended that France ensure respect for freedom of religion, freedom to practise religious rites and freedom of association.[i] The Coordination des associations et particuliers pour la liberté de conscience recommended ensuring that article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is respected by French institutions.[ii] JS10 recommended to put an end to religious discrimination and stigmatization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.[iii]

he traffic light coalition in Germany has taken many  measures and passed laws to better manage  migration. However, the number  of deportations has also increased.  Even  to those countries where  blasphemy  laws are  practiced in  the  strongest terms.  Deportations of Ahmadi  Muslims  to  Pakistan  have increased  sharply  in the  past.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has suffered long-standing persecution in Pakistan, where the very identity of an Ahmadi Muslim, existential by definition, has been denied. The community is persecuted and discriminated by law and by religious ideology. The fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief as well as other human rights of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community have been seriously violated.

The organizations concerned operate for the protection and respect of Human Rights in the Arab world and in the countries of the world. They are active in the protection and promotion of Human Rights as well as affirming international efforts for Human Development. Moreover, they strive to promote dialogue and peace in the world as well as to guarantee the enjoyment of the fundamental rights and freedoms of everyone.

recommended to repeal all anti-blasphemy laws, and ensure that the State’s domestic laws, policies and practices comply with the international human rights covenants, in particular articles 2, 18, 19 and 26 of the ICCPR. It also addressed the multiple and intersecting forms of violence and discrimination suffered by the Ahmadi community, including those faced by Ahmadi women, children and refugees.

Guest speaker Christine Mirre (CAP Liberté de Conscience) from Paris, France, started the Shadow Report session by voicing her endorsement of its enduring ties to the UAE and human rights. She also told that where the world and the NGOs of the United Nations are going. She also pointed to the rights of women as a concerned representative of NGO. 

High-level event : Seminar inaugurating the shadow report of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism
Human Rights in the United Arab Emirates

CAP Liberté de Conscience (France) and the Brussels-based NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers are deeply concerned about the deterioration of human rights in a wide range of areas in Sri Lanka.

In the last few years, the Supreme  Court of Sri Lanka and the Human Rights Commission  have  received  about  15,000  complaints  annually  regarding  the violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Chapter III, 10-14 of the 1978 Constitution. All these complaints are against executive and administrative actions of government officials.

The human rights defense organization CAP LC (Coordination des Associations et Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience), in co-sponsorship with UPF and its affiliated organization Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), held the side event on the occasion of the Universal Periodical Review of Japan at the Human Rights Council.

Le gouvernement français a institué un système unique en Europe de surveillance de ces minorités qui entraîne de graves manquements de l’Etat aux principes de liberté de religion ou de croyance, d’égalité des citoyens français devant les institutions nationales et de fraternité en clivant les citoyens selon leur appartenance à une minorité religieuse ou de croyance reconnue ou non et en instaurant un climat de suspicion et parfois même de haine pour les croyances non traditionnelles et non normatives.

The subject of human rights and religious freedom is one of the most critical issues in contemporary Indonesia, as religious minorities suffer not only from discrimination but also increasingly from physical attacks because of their beliefs, and the cases of the Ahmadiyya community are a clear example.