7 Freedom of religion or belief
68. The Government made the promotion and protection
of the right to freedom of religion or belief a key priority in
2013. Ministers were asked to be "ambassadors for religious
freedom", and diplomatic staff are undergoing a new programme
in "religious literacy" to equip them to "understand
and influence the complex role religion plays in global politics
today".[127] The
FCO ran one-day training courses on religion and foreign policy,
and organised a programme of seminars, covering issues such as
'Religion, Politics and Human Rights in the New Middle East',
'The Islamic Worldview: its relevance to foreign policy' and 'An
Introduction to the Baha'i faith' for FCO staff. Since January
2013, 107 members of staff across government have completed training
courses on the freedom of religion or belief. Of these, four were
senior civil servants, 20 were heads of sections, 73 were desk
officers and 10 were support officers, and one-third of these
attendees had come from other government departments.[128]
69. A new Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or
Belief was formed as a sub-group of the Foreign Secretary's Human
Rights Advisory Group in March 2014. The members of the group
are:
Table 2: Members of the FCO Advisory Group on
Freedom of Religion or Belief
Kate Allen, UK Director, Amnesty International
Waqar Azmi, Chairman, Remembering Srebrenica
Mashood Baderin, School of Law SOAS, University of London
Shami Chakrabarti, Director, Liberty
Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, British Humanist Association
Joel Edwards, International Director, Micah Challenge
Malcolm Evans, Professor of Public International Law, University of Bristol
Tom Gallagher, Professor of Ethnic Conflict & Peace, University of Bradford
Ed Husain, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Edward Kessler, Executive Director, Woolf Institute
David Mepham, UK Director, Human Rights Watch
Trevor Pears, Executive Chairman, Pears Family Charitable Foundation
Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, University of Oxford
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Roger Trigg, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, and Senior Research Fellow, Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford
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The sub-group met in March 2014 to discuss "vision
and strategy" but no strategy document has been published.[129]
Baroness Warsi, as Chair of the new sub-group, said after the
first meeting that "the persecution of people because of
their faith or belief has, I believe, become a global crisis"[130];
and the Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP, Minister of State at the FCO, has
described freedom of religion or belief as a "litmus test
for other human rights", which could be a "catalyst
towards securing other fundamental freedoms".[131]
Restrictions on religious freedoms
70. According to the Pew Research Centre, the number
of countries with a high or very high level of restrictions on
religion reached a six-year peak in 2012, with increases reported
in every major region of the world expect the Americas.[132]
There is a rising trend in the number of reports of violence against
religious minorities. The FCO's 2013 Report gave examples of restrictions
in a number of countries. During the course of 2013, 16 people
were awaiting execution, and another 20 were serving life sentences
in Pakistan under the country's blasphemy law; there has been
no reduction in the persecution of religious minorities in Iran;
the security situation in Iraq worsened in 2013, with increased
attacks on Christians and Sunnis; extremist Buddhist groups in
Burma and Sri Lanka were responsible for organised violence against
Muslim communities; and there has been an intensification of hostilities
against Ahmadiyya, Christian and Shi'a communities in Indonesia,
which has a tradition of religious diversity and tolerance.
71. We asked witnesses what the right to freedom
of religion or belief actually meant in practical terms. Professor
Evans was candid about the difficulty in defining this right:
he said that no serious attempt had been made to "lend greater
specificity to what the freedom of religion and belief actually
means".[133] Baroness
Warsi said that the FCO had been "much more outspoken"
in defining this right.[134]
She defined the right as:
"the freedom to have a religion or a belief,
freedom to manifest that religion or belief, freedom to change
that religion or belief, and freedom not to have a religion or
belief".[135]
Baroness Warsi said that one of the challenges with
the right to freedom of religion or belief is that "it is
sometimes interpreted very differently in the West as opposed
to the East. We protect believers, whereas large parts of the
East like to protect the religion. It has been really hard to
reconcile that space politically and internationally".[136]
We also note that protecting the right to freedom of religion
or belief may conflict with other human rights such as LGBT rights
and women's rights.
72. Restrictions on the freedom of religion or belief
can fall into two broad categories: direct state denial of religious
freedom, and state failure to protect. Direct state denial includes
situations where the government either actively persecutes individuals
or communities on the basis of their beliefs, or denies them the
possibility to choose freely what they believe. In practice, this
might mean legislative frameworks which deny religious groups
a "legal personality", rendering it impossible for them
to own property or places of worship for example.[137]
Restrictive laws on apostasy[138]
or blasphemy[139] mean
that individuals who wish to change belief are threatened by conviction
or even death: the case of Meriam Ibrahim, who was sentenced to
death over charges of apostasy in Sudan, has been widely publicised.[140]
73. The other of these two categories is state failure
to protect, which occurs when governments fail to protect religious
groups that are subject to abuses by non-state actors. The Pew
Research Centre found that in 51 countries, there were clear instances
when the government did not intervene in social discrimination
and abuses of religious groups by non-state actors. Professor
Evans noted that states' failure to protect was often "acquiescence
in traditional rivalries and hostilities which governments at
different times have encouraged when it suits their interests".[141]
The persecution of the Muslim Rohingya in Burma and the Shia communities
in Pakistan are two such cases.
FCO's work on freedom of religion
or belief
74. The FCO's response to what it describes as a
"rising tide of restrictions" has been carried out in
four main ways: through multilateral organisations; bilateral
engagement; project work; and training and expertise for FCO ministers
and officials.[142]
We asked Baroness Warsi what the FCO hoped to achieve through
its new emphasis on the freedom of religion or belief. She said:
"We started off from a very low base
[because] the concept of faith in the public sphereeven
talking about faith in the public sphere, or belief, or religionwas
considered in itself to be politically either naive or stupid.
When we first came into Government, it was important to me that
the first speech I made was that this Government would "do
God". I wanted to signal a change."[143]
She added that it was important to increase "religious
literacy" to build "confidence" in officials to
have the "tough conversations" around sensitive issues
around the world, and she said that the FCO wanted to bring in
expertise and had done so through the sub-group on freedom of
religion or belief, to help the FCO formulate campaigns and policy.[144]
She said that speeches such as the one she had given in Georgetown
about the persecution of Christians had "indicated a much
more confident and front-footed Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
as well as a Government who are prepared to tackle these issues.
Ministerial colleagues, including the Prime Minister, are now
much more frank about discussing these issues".[145]
75. The FCO spent £204,000 on project work on
freedom of religion or belief in 2013-14: that is equivalent to
three per cent of the total Human Rights and Democracy Programme
Fund. Baroness Warsi told us that the FCO would be spending more
than £204,000 on project work in 2013-14.[146]
76. We welcome the steps taken by the FCO in promoting
the right to freedom of religion or belief. Given the rising trend
in restrictions on the right to freedom of religion or belief
and the role religious intolerance plays in fuelling conflict,
we also welcome the FCO's indication that spending on project
work to support freedom of religion or belief will rise from 2013-14
levels. The formation of a sub-group of the Secretary of State's
Advisory Group on Human Rights to advise specifically on freedom
of religion or belief is a sensible and worthwhile step. We recommend
that the FCO publish the strategy being drawn up by the sub-group
specifying what the FCO is trying to achieve and how it plans
to spend the funding allocated to project work. The strategy should
specify which countries the FCO is targeting, if any, which partners
it plans to engage with, and what practical steps it will take
to bring about change.
127 FCO, Human Rights and Democracy: 2013 FCO Report,
Cm 8870, April 2014, page 21; page 66 Back
128
Memorandum from the FCO (HRS0036) Back
129
"Foreign Office Advisory Group on freedom of religion or
belief", FCO press release , 25 March 2014, www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-office-advisory-group-on-freedom-of-religion-or-belief Back
130
Ibid. Back
131
HC Debate, 1 May 2014, col 1094 [Commons Chamber] Back
132
Pew Research Center, "Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year
High", January 2014, www.pewresearch.org/religion Back
133
Q 49 Back
134
Q 63 Back
135
Ibid. Back
136
Q 64 Back
137
Q 44 Back
138
Apostasy is the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or
political belief or principle. Back
139
Blasphemy is an action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about
God or sacred things. Back
140
"Meriam Ibrahim, Christian threatened with execution in Sudan,
arrives in US", The Guardian online, 1 August 2014, www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/01/meriam-ibrahim-arrives-in-us Back
141
Q 44 Back
142
FCO, Human Rights and Democracy: 2013 FCO Report, Cm 8870,
April 2014, page 21 Back
143
Q 63 Back
144
Q 63 Back
145
Ibid. Back
146
Q 65 Back
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