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.

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.

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 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.

THE-QUASI GOVERNMENTAL INDONESIAN COUNSEL OF ULEMA(MUI) HAS DECLARED AHMADI MUSLIMS AS “DEVIANT” AND HERETICAL TO ISLAM–PERPETUATING VIOLENCE AGAINST THE COMMUNITY 2008 JOINT MINISTERIAL DECREEEST ABLISHED LEGAL RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF BELIEF FOR AHMADI MUSLIMS IN INDONESIA DESTRUCTIO OF AHMADI MUSLIM MOSQUES &P ROHIBITION ON BUILDING NEW PLACES OF WORSHIP BANS ON LITERATURE BELONGING TO THEAHMADIYYAMUSLIM COMMUNITY LACK OF ADEQUATE HOUSING FOR MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY WHOSE HOMES WERE DESTROYED BY INDONESIAN MILITANTS

CAP Liberté de Conscience is a secular European created in 1995 and dedicated to protect the Right of Freedom of Religion and Belief. We combats all forms of discrimination based on religion or belief by alerting European and International bodies. We collects testimonies of discrimination and human rights violations affecting religious or belief communities in order to disseminate them to international bodies, and in order to raise awareness and inform them as well as to generate debate on the protection of Freedom of Religion and Belief. We also advocates for any religious or spiritual group facing discrimination to have their right to Freedom of Religion and Belief recognized.

On behalf of the Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience (CAP Freedom of Conscience) and International Human Rights Commissio , it is my privilege to invite you to our NGO side event highlighting the persecution faced by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Indonesia during the 41st session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review in Geneva.

We are very concerned about the ethnic killings of Amharas in Horo Guduru Wellega Zone, West Wellega Zone and in Kellem Wellega Zone Oromia from June to September 2022:

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.

Amhara survivors of the latest round of ethnically-targeted killings in Wellega, in Oromia region are under siege and afraid for their lives. OLF-Shene regained control of Jardega Jarte Wereda on September 24, 2022; 60 Amhara civilians were burnt alive, 200-500 were killed and more than 20,000 have been displaced.

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.

CAP Liberté de Conscience, along with Human Rights Without Frontiers and other international NGOs, are very concerned about repeated massacres of Amharas in total impunity in Ethiopia as well as mass arrests by the Ethiopian federal government of Amhara activists, journalists and other critics.

No society can claim to be idealisticly egalitarian as certain elements of every society always claim superiority over the others, either on ethnic, numerical, or religious basis and try to usurp some rights of the weaker segments, but the governing forces of the societies usually play positive regulatory role in order to quell the unruly advancements of the powerful groups in order to safeguard the rights of the minorities or those weaker segments. In modern world the States have promulgated and implemented laws to guarantee basic human rights for all of its citizens irrespective of their caste, creed or religion and many States have guaranteed these basic human rights by incorporating them in their Constitution or are otherwise accepted by the humanity, while assuring its citizens and international community that the guaranteed right would not be violated at any cost and in case of violation the aggrieved person would be allowed some kind of remedy by approaching the Constitutional Courts for enforcement of those rights.