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.

Normally, it is the States and their governments that are the deciders and practitioners of conflicts as well as finding the solutions, the role of the civil societies is often invisible in such development. NGO organisations tirelessly work to create the conditions that pushes international institutions and States to set aside their entrenched views in conflicts and move towards peace through give and take process.

Et d’enquêter de toute urgence sur le cas de M. Adam afin que lui – et tous les citoyens français – puissent espérer un procès équitable dans un délai raisonnable et puissent l’attendre dans des conditions décentes dans le respect des droits de l’homme comme la France s’est engagée à le faire.

CAP Liberté de Conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers welcome the work of the Commission but remain deeply concerned about the massacres and attacks on Amhara civilians as in last June in Gimbi County of Oromia Region, thousands of OLA and OLF-Shene militants attacked Amharas in 10 villages with the collaboration of local ethnic Oromo residents and the passive complicity of the Oromia Region government.

End of last year, Joël Aivo, a law professor who challenged President Talon in the last election, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly plotting against the state and laundering money.

In May 2021, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a Resolution in which it declared to be deeply concerned by the restrictions on civic space and the crackdown on demonstrations by the army resulting in loss of lives, abuses and violations.

While Scientologists have had to fight (and win in court) against discrimination from German officials since 50 years [1] , it is since nearly 30 years, and still today in 2022, German citizens are in general life contexts required to sign declarations that they did not and will not participate in any Scientology-related activity before obtaining some public and private jobs, or before getting a municipal grant for the purchase of an eBike and so contribute to the city’s efforts on protecting the environment, as it has been happening with the City of Munich. This type of hidden coercive measure is backed up by government funded and promoted propaganda, that dehumanizes individual Scientologists, their beliefs and twists their real aims.

In the Russian Federation, premises of the Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be confiscated. Following similar decisions in other jurisdictions, on July 22, 2022, the District Court of Volgograd turned a building and a land plot belonging to the Jehovah’s Witnesses into state ownership. The fact that the European Court of Human Rights recently declared the “liquidation” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian Federation and confiscation of their properties as contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights was ignored.

In 1990, Mohammed Yusuf, his wife and their children moved to Gimbi where they were given land to till and also engaged in farming.  On 18 June, Gimbi was invaded by armed men. Assuming that they would not kill women and children, Mohammed Yusuf went into hiding in a maze farm while his children and grandchildren stayed at home behind closed door.

on June 18 the Christian TV network CBS broadcast a statement of the murderer, who said he had committed the crime because his ex-wife was a member of a Korean Christian new religious movement, Shincheonji. It came out that in the days before the murder the assassin went though four counseling sessions with Pastor Oh Myeong-hyeon of the Heresy Research Center, an institution specialized in fighting Shincheonji and other groups it considers “heretic,” which also supports kidnapping and forced conversion (deprogramming). Obviously Pastor Oh did not suggest that the man killed his ex-wife, but he excited his hatred against Shincheonji. To deflect blame from himself, Pastor Oh later held a press conference where he claimed that Shincheonji was responsible for the crime and should be punished. If the wife had not joined Shincheonji the crime would never have happened, he said.

A 34-year old PhD student sentenced to 34 years in prison and a 34-year travel ban afterwards, a cynical and cruel game with this number  At mid-August 2022, Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi 34-year old PhD student from the University of Leeds, was sentenced under the kingdom’s counter-terrorism and cybercrime laws to a heavy penalty: 34 years in prison and a 34-year travel ban after her release for following and retweeting messages from Saudi women’s rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul ranked third in the “Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015” and the winner of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize in 2020.

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.

Protection of universal human rights in conflict affected areas has always been the priority for the work of UN Human rights council. There is inseparable connection between protection of peace and security and human rights and human dignity. Both sustainable peace and human dignity can’t not be achieved but with Justice. The latter is a fundamental building block for the formers, thus it needs to be addressed at once. This linkage become even more important when the shadow of the fading conflict still dominates and hinder normalization efforts by the states engaged in post-conflict peacebuilding. The two-fold task presents a challenge but also provide opportunity to support transition from conflict to peace by applying the mechanism of transitional justice.1 One such important opportunity emerged in the critical region of South Caucuses with the effective transition of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the parties signed Trilateral Statement in November 2020 which ended the war.

Peace and justice are inevitable part of any post-conflict reconciliation. It is therefore necessary to streamline efforts aimed at strengthening the linkage between them while ensuring broad participation of civil society to this aim. This would not only serve to bringing justice and broaden the rule of law, but would also help healing wounds thereby contributing to post-conflict peace- building and reconciliation processes through the multi-stakeholder approach.

Civil society participation is a cornerstone of the Human Rights Council. Given continuing restrictions to civil society participation, including the Council’s adoption of efficiency measures to address the UN’s financial shortfalls; the COVID-19 pandemic2; and the ongoing Strategic Heritage Plan, we call on you to continue to ensure full participation of civil society and that civil society are fully consulted in the making of decisions that affect civil society participation and access to the Council. We are concerned that without such consultation, decisions on issues relating to participation and procedure will be taken without full consideration of all key stakeholders, to the detriment of the Council’s effectiveness.