CSW welcomes House of Lords debate on freedom of religion

CSW welcomes the 16 July debate in the House of Lords on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

community to give greater priority to upholding Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB).

Lord Alton of Liverpool secured the debate, which outlined a number of worldwide violations of the right to FORB as set out in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Religious persecution is taking place all over the world and whoever is responsible should be in our sights”, said Lord Alton. He highlighted that the purpose of the debate was to encourage governments to reclaim the legacy of Article 18, to insist on the importance of religious literacy, to ask that greater political and diplomatic priority be given to upholding Article 18 and to discuss the cross-over between religious freedom and country’s prosperity.

During the two and a half hour debate, members of the House of Lords referred to the recent atrocities towards Christians and Yazidis in the Middle East by Daesh (Islamic State), the atrocities perpetrated against Rohingya Muslims in Burma and the persecution of those who hold no religion or belief.

Since its election in May 2015, the UK Government has declared freedom of religion or belief as one of its human rights priorities. However, the debate pressed the Government to strengthen the promotion of Article 18 within its foreign policy, including in the FCO business plan and in wider trade relationships.

Other participants in the debate included Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations (UK) Lord Singh of Wimbledon and Baroness Anelay of St John’s, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

In her response, the Minister highlighted that despite the use of the full range of diplomatic tools to promote freedom of religion or belief, there remains much more to do. “I want to see us step up our engagement with individual Governments. Countries around the world need to know that Britain will stand up for this fundamental right. We must not be shy about coming forward,” the Minister said. She also highlighted that she wants the government to focus more on making freedom of religion or belief part of the answer to extremism.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said “I very much welcome this timely and important debate in the House of Lords. At the time of increasing worldwide violations against this fundamental human right, it is of the utmost importance that the British Government are held accountable not just on what they are currently doing to promote and protect this human right, but how they are going to prioritise it in their future work. It was particularly encouraging to see such a long list of distinguished speakers in the debate, which reinforces the importance of this topic. I would like to commend both Lord Alton for his work in raising this debate and also Baroness Anelay for her work in ensuring Freedom of Religion or Belief remains a human rights priority for the UK Government. I look forward to continue to working with them both.”