“Never Again”: What Can Be Done to Prevent and Address Religious Persecution A Panel at the Newseum in Washington, DC on October 11, 2019
Category: English
-
The journey to freedom
EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief, Jan Figel talks about how the Union helped Aasia Bibi make her way out of Pakistan
“I am very grateful to Jan Figel, EU special envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB); and Muhammad Aman Ullah, a Pakistani human rights activist, for their thorough support. I have no words to thank them. I pray to God for their safety and well- being,” Aasia Bibi says in a message.
Bibi had spent eight years in jail but now finally safe and sound away from home, she recently broke her silence. In May 2019, she moved to Canada where she was reunited with her two daughters.
Bibi says that she prays for other falsely-accused victims of blasphemy in Pakistan, and she wants the state, government(s), and civil society to help ensure their safe release. In the future, she also aims to raise her voice for people languishing in Pakistani jails under false charges of blasphemy.
The News on Sunday talks to Jan Figel, who became the EU special envoy for freedom of religion and belief in 2016 and was engaged with Pakistan during the country’s reassessment of its GSP Plus status later got extensively involved in Bibi’s safe exit from Pakistan.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. Bibi’s case was a closely-watched one. The fact that there was no decision or an undue pending appeal on capital punishment without response from the Supreme Court was a big problem,” he says.
Financially, he points out, Pakistan benefitted greatly from the GSP Plus Trade Agreement with the EU, bringing billions of dollars of trade income. But, there was serious and growing criticism in Europe of Pakistan’s human rights record.
“I told many in Pakistan that the status quo is not enough. Pakistan had to move forward in implementation of important international treaties and commitments. We [the EU] support democratic reforms and equal, inclusive citizenship for all people in Pakistan, including minorities.”
However, he clarifies, “We did not link direct, concrete judicial decisions with the political talks or economic interests. We respect rule of law and independence of judiciary. But they should deliver functioning public service, un-delayed, predictable justice for all, especially for vulnerable minorities.” And the case of Bibi, for many people and for EU politicians in a way became a litmus test for a functioning justice system in Pakistan.
Figel says real progress in the case started only after summer 2018 elections.
“This was a decisive signal for us – that justice is stronger now,” he says, adding, “However, I think the IK government and Pakistan military used this delay [in Bibi’s exit] to get the situation in the country under real control.”
Figel says key persons from Imran Khan’s government – Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan and later Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari – visited Brussels and EU spoke very fairly on the matter. “I was in intense contact with Pakistani authorities. They were looking for the best momen among many domestic and international issues and a suitable solution.”
Figel says he was in regular contact with the couple since early November. “We had also frequent audio and video exchanges. Thanks to my courageous, collaborator Aman Ullah, an activist who has helped blasphemy victims,” he says, adding, “But with long delays due to judicial revision and no certainty regarding concrete solution, Bibi needed human and psychological support during some periods.”
Because her daughters urgently needed a safe place and a solid refuge after the SC verdict, the EU assisted the family in figuring out solutions. With the approval of their parents and the family taking care of the children, Figel says the EU sent formal applications for humanitarian emergency assistance in several countries.
The choice was between three states in the EU and Canada. In December, Canada formally confirmed its willingness to grant asylum, announced publicly by PM Trudeau in Paris during an international event.
Figel says that Canada was the logical destination for family to reunite.
“This was a decisive arrangement. There were other governments offering assistance; but the selection agreed that the most simple was Canada. Canada deserves international acknowledgement for its spirit of solidarity and real hospitality.”
Figel praises Bibi as an admirably brave woman and a loving mother.
“She did not give up her Christian faith [converting in exchange for immediate freedom] and represents encouragement for many others facing false blasphemy accusations,” he says.
“The Supreme Court’s decision in Bibi’s case can serve as a basis for reforms in Pakistan, which has a very outdated system of blasphemy legislation which can be easily misused against innocent people to settle personal scores or for the vested interests (as proved in many such cases). Bibi’s sacrifice together with many persons at death row may bring more humane conditions into troubled, divided society to eliminate poverty, intolerance, terrorism and violent extremism.”
More than 70 people are on death row. Pakistan and Mauritania are the only states in the world with mandatory capital punishment for such acts. “There appears to be a will to limit frequent abuses of this instrument. But more should be done to respect dignity, freedom of religion or belief and equal citizenship for all citizens, especially minorities. Quality of democracy is inter alia measured by the living and status of religious or ethnic minorities,” he maintains.
Figel believes this experience proves that as a soft-power the EU can facilitate positive changes in the world in realms of justice, sustainable development and human rights protection. Defence of the persecuted, the defenceless or the voiceless is our noble obligation. http://tns.thenews.com.pk/journey-freedom/#.XY6I1UYzbcs
-
Persecuted Pakistani Christian woman builds new life in Canada
Nine years after being falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad while engaged in a row with her neighbours, Pakistani-born Christian Asia Bibi and her daughters have been relocated from Lahore to an undisclosed safe location in Canada where they are now all living together.
Bibi had spent eight years on death row until October 2018 when Pakistan’s supreme court overturned her conviction, triggering violent mass protests throughout the nation and calls for both her and the judges in the case to be killed. Bibi was later released but put in legal limbo while awaiting the outcome of tense negotiations as her lawyers attempted to find a country that could grant her safe asylum.
Supporters of radical Islamist party, Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, rally to protest the release of Asia Bibi (pictured) in Karachi, Pakistan. EPA-EFE//SHAHZAIB AKBER
Radical Islamists in Pakistan – a nuclear-armed nation of 215 million people, 98% of which are Muslim – have regularly called for Bibi to be publicly executed and activists say she would not have been safe had she stayed in the country.
The EU’s Special Envoy for Religious Freedom Jan Figel played a key role in negotiating her release and eventual immigration to Canada. Figel first met with Pakistani government officials both in Brussels and in Islamabad to secure Bibi’s safe passage out of the country.
For more than 30 years, Pakistan has struggled to quell the spread of radical Islam in the country following the introduction of harsh blasphemy laws by the country’s hardline former dictator, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.
Since then, both internal and external Islamist organisations – including branches of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, and Lashkar-e-Taiba – have helped facilitate the growth of extremism and terrorism in the country. Religious fundamentalists and extremists, especially those influenced by Wahhabism, have regularly partnered with Pakistani state institutions to help further each other’s interests as they shape society around them.
When the situation became unbearable, the EU’s representative linked the human rights conditions in Pakistan to the GSP+ trade agreement between the European Union and Pakistan, an accord that specifically states.
“The EU supports democratic reforms and equal, inclusive citizenship for all people in Pakistan, including its minorities of Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Sikhs, and others.” Figel said in interviews with the media following Bibi’s release,” I realised how I may become a target of violent extremists…They killed Asia Bibi’s defenders in the past, they have many followers abroad as well.”
Three EU countries and Canada offered Bibi and her daughters to immigrate, a decision that Pakistan’s government readily accepted but one that was denounced by the country’s dozens of militant Islamist organisations, all of whom accused Islamabad of “caving into the European Union”.
That did not deter Bibi, however, as she and her daughters were granted asylum by the Canadian government following a public announcement by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Paris during last year’s centennial commemoration of the end of the First World War.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/persecuted-pakistani-christian-woman-builds-new-life-in-canada
-
Release of Asia Bibi shows promise for religious freedom
Budapest, Hungary, Sep 12, 2019 / 12:02 am (CNA).- A European Union official who played a role in working for the release of Pakistani death row inmate Asia Bibi said the outcome shows the potential of international cooperation to promote religious freedom.
Ashiq Mesih and Eisham Ashiq, Asia Bibi’s husband and daughter in Rome April 15, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Jan Figel is the EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion outside of Europe. In an interview with CNA, he praised Bibi as “an admirably brave woman and loving mother. She did not give up her Christian faith [in exchange for freedom], and she represents encouragement for many others facing false blasphemy accusations.”
Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother of five, was convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan in 2009 and sentenced to death by hanging. She was accused of making disparaging remarks about the prophet Muhammad after an argument about a cup of water. She was held on death row until October 2018 when her conviction was overturned.
After the acquittal, there were protests by Islamic hardliners, and Bibi remained in Pakistan under protective custody until May 2019. She is now in a secret location in Canada with her family.
In a new audio message this week, Bibi issued a plea that justice and judgement be treated as serious matters aimed at the pursuit of truth.
“If you want to punish someone, do not do it without listening to him. And do something for all the people in prison for blasphemy: visit them in prison, listen to them, discuss with them,” she said.
According to the U.S. State Department, there are an estimated 77 people in prison in Pakistan under blasphemy laws, most of them Muslims.
Bibi said in her message she is grateful to the international community that worked for her release, and in particular to Figel, whom she described as “an angel who saved me [from] the imprisonment.”
Figel told CNA that the reason Bibi remained under protective custody in Pakistan for nine months was likely because “the Imran Khan government and Pakistani Military used this delay to get the situation in the country under real control.”
He lamented that under the previous government, “relatively small groups took streets hostage, and de facto dictated some decisions to the elected government. Now, leaders of militant groups and violent extremists have been jailed after massive public protests.”
Figel recently launched the academic and political Declaration of Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere.
He explained to CNA that his involvement in Bibi’s case was intended to shed light on issues of religious freedom, since “Asia Bibi was famous worldwide as an evident abuse of freedom of religion and beliefs.”
Figel said he was able to visit Pakistan only in December 2017, and he made a second visit in 2018.
In meeting with officials, he “spoke about the importance of dignity and justice for all Pakistanis, especially minorities” and stressed that Bibi’s case was being closely watched internationally. He emphasized that the status quo of commercial relations between the EU and Pakistan was insufficient, and he asked the country to comply with international treaties that protect minorities.
Despite all the talks, Figel said that “real progress started only after summer elections in Pakistan with incoming Imran Khan government. It was brave enough to take responsibility into [its own] hands from militant groups who successfully took the State as a hostage under the previous government.”
After the acquittal, Figel spoke “very fairly and very seriously” with Pakistani government officials. He also helped Bibi’s family members apply for asylum in three EU countries and Canada, fearing that they also could become targets of violence.
During this time, Figel was also in contact with Bibi as she was being held in protective custody.
“With long delays due to judicial revision and no certainty on the expected full solution, she needed human and psychological support in some periods,” he said.
In December, Canada formally granted asylum to Bibi and her family. Her daughters were transported immediately. After Bibi and her husband were given passports and permitted to travel, the family was reunited.
Figel hopes Bibi’s story will become a basis for reform of the blasphemy law in Pakistan.
He also said the experience “proves that the EU as a soft-power can facilitate positive changes in the world in the area of justice, sustainable development, and human rights protection through more efficient Freedom of Religion and Belief promotion.”
“Defense of the persecuted, the defenseless or the voiceless is our noble obligation.”
-
Asia Bibi thanks EU’s Figel in her first live message from exile
“I want to thank an angel, a person who helped me from my imprisonment until now: that person is Jan Figel, the EU’s special envoy for Religious Freedom,” says Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row after being accused of blasphemy, in her first live message from her exile in Canada. “I am really grateful and thankful to him and I wish that God may provide more people like him,” she continued.
In her message, recorded without showing her face for security reasons, Asia Bibi shows no hate, rather she is full of forgiveness and solidarity with all the victims in Pakistan.
Video was recorded by Asia Bibi early September 2019. Translation from Urdu by Pakistani human right activist Mr. Muhammad Aman UllaAsia Bibi decided to thank EU’s Jan Figel as a key person who negotiated her liberation. The Christian woman was convicted in 2010 after being falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a row with her neighbours. She spent eight years on death row before last October, when Pakistan’s supreme court overturned her conviction, triggering violent protests throughout the nation and calls for the judges in the case to be killed. In that situation, Bibi was released but put in a legal limbo while waiting for the negotiations to find a country that could grant her asylum.
The importance of Mr. Figel’s role was indirectly signalled by very harsh statement of the militant Pakistani islamist network against Pakistan Government “caving in to European Union”, published in early November 2018 in immediate reaction to the verdict of acquittal. Islamist groups have regularly called for Asia Bibi to be executed and activists say she would not have been safe had she stayed in Pakistan.
“I realised how I may become a target of violent extremists…They killed Asia Bibi’s defenders in the past, they have many followers abroad as well,” Figel told The European Post.
Figel has met Pakistani governmental officials and politicians both in Brussels and in Pakistan to secure Bibi’s liberation and safety since 2016. When the situation became unbearable, the EU’s representative linked the human rights conditions in Pakistan to the GSP+ trade agreement between the European Union and Pakistan: “The status quo is not enough! The country has to move forward with the implementation of important international treaties and commitments. We, the EU, support democratic reforms and equal, inclusive citizenship for all people in Pakistan, including minorities of Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Sikhs and others,” he said.
Three EU Member States and Canada offered their territory as a safe place to her. Notably, the U.K. was not on the list because of concerns of unrest and turmoil in the country. In December last year Canada formally confirmed its willingness to grant asylum, Prime Minister Trudeau announced publicly in Paris when he took part of the Peace Centennial anniversary of WWI. With the help of another country, Asia Bibi and her daughters have been relocated from Lahore to a safe place in Canada where they are now all living together.
-
Asia Bibi pleads for justice for victims of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws as she plans to set
As Asia Bibi sits free at last in a secret location in Canada, the Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after a false blasphemy charge thinks of those left behind still facing the same ordeal.
Nearly four months after the 54-year-old finally left Pakistan following a miscarriage of justice that caused worldwide outcry, she has the opportunity to rebuild a new life for her and her daughters.
Yet while she is enthusiastically grateful for the international efforts to free her, she says the world should know that Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws have left many others still behind bars.
In her first ever newspaper interview, she told The Sunday Telegraph she had at times fallen into despair after being sentenced to death in a case condemned around the world.
She also spoke of her heartbreak at being forced to leave her homeland, amid fears she would be murdered by religious extremists even after Pakistan’s supreme court had quashed her flimsy conviction.
The daughters of Asia Bibi pose with an image of their mother while standing outside their residence in Sheikhupura Pakistan CREDIT: ADREES LATIF/ REUTERS
Her freedom was finally secured with mediation from a European Union special envoy, Jan Figel, a Slovak politican who has now for the first time spoken about negotiations to secure Mrs Bibi’s release as she was held in protective custody for months even after her release from prison.
While she is currently in Canada, she is hoping to move to an undisclosed country in Europe in the coming months.
Mrs Bibi, also known as Asya Noureen, said her wrongful conviction after she was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad in a row with fellow farmhands had devastated her life.
“My whole life suffered, my children suffered and this had a huge impact on my life,” she said in a series of voice messages sent in response to questions from the Telegraph.
Mrs Bibi thanked the supreme court for acquitting her, but said others also needed fair trials.
“There are many other cases where the accused are lying in jail for years and their decision should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them.”
“I request the whole world to pay attention to this issue. The way any person is alleged of blasphemy without any proper investigation without any proper proof, that should be noticed. This blasphemy law should be reviewed and there should be proper investigation mechanisms while applying this law. We should not consider anyone sinful for this act without any proof.”
Mrs Bibi thanked the supreme court for acquitting her, but said others also needed fair trials
The US State Department says an estimated 77 others are in prison in Pakistan under blasphemy laws, most of them Muslims, with lawyers and rights groups saying false accusations are made to settle scores, or silence rivals. The charge can carry the death penalty, but is so incendiary that cases can also end in mob lynching. Pakistan has never executed anyone specifically for blasphemy, but trials and appeals can drag on for years because judges are afraid of extremist threats.
“Sometimes I was so disappointed and losing courage I used to wonder whether I was coming out of jail or not, what would happen next, whether I would remain here all my life,” Mrs Bibi said.
“When my daughters visited me in jail, I never cried in front of them, but when they went after meeting me in jail, I used to cry alone filled with pain and grief. I used to think about them all the time, how they are living.”
Mrs Bibi was first convicted of blasphemy after she quarrelled with two Muslim women while they picked falsa berries for a landowner in rural Punjab in 2009. Her accusers claimed she insulted the Prophet Mohammed in an argument because the women would not drink from a container she had touched. The accusation was taken up by the village mullah and she was taken to court and sentenced to death in 2010. But Mrs Bibi said she had been made to confess at the hands of a village mob who nearly beat her unconscious. She denied she had ever committed blasphemy.
She spent eight years on death row, constantly fearing for her life, before the case was quashed in the supreme court last October. However she was kept in custody for a further seven months as Imran Khan’s government wrestled with how to free her without angering influential hardline Islamist groups who had paralysed the country in protest at her acquittal.
A Pakistani supporter of a hardline religious party holds an image of Asia Bibi during a protest rally following the Supreme Court’s decision to acquit her of blasphemy CREDIT: AAMIR QURESHI/ AFP
Mr Figel, the EU special envoy on religious freedom since 2016, said: “I think Imran Khan’s government and Pakistan’s military used this delay to get the situation in the country under real control.”
He held talks in Brussels with Pakistan’s attorney general, Anwar Khan and Human Rights minister, Shireen Mazari, on how to free her.
As the months dragged on, Mrs Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih were kept in government safe houses first in the hills outside the capital Islamabad and then in the port city of Karachi. While given a television and a smartphone, they were unable to go outside.
The strain saw Mrs Bibi fall into depression and be treated for heart problems. Throughout this time she was in daily contact with Muhammad Amanullah, a human rights activist who had previously helped five other people accused of blasphemy. Mr Amanullah acted as her direct liaison with the EU.
He said: “[Pakistan’s government] always told us it will be two weeks, or 10 days, two weeks, 10 days and like this we spent seven months.”
He went on: “At one point she had lost her hope and one day she told me, if I am assassinated, or anything happens to me please do not forget my daughters.”
Early candidates for asylum included France and Belgium, but as time went on, Mrs Bibi’s daughters were granted temporary refuge in Canada. Mrs Bibi had wanted to go to Europe, but arrangements were made for her to follow them and she finally left Pakistan in May. Mrs Bibi and Mr Figel both rejected earlier reports she had ever wanted to go to the UK. She said she had never contacted the UK or asked to go there. The whole family is later expected to move to an undisclosed European country. “Security conditions are crucially important for Asia Bibi and for her family,” said Mr Figel.
Asia Bibi is seen in an undated photo handed out by family members in Punjab province CREDIT: REUTERS
When her freedom finally arrived, security concerns meant Asia Bibi was unable to say goodbye to her father or her home town. “My heart was broken when I left that way without meeting my family. Pakistan is my country, Pakistan is my homeland, I love my country, I love my soil,” she said.
Mr Amanullah has also left the country after being declared an apostate because of his work with those accused of blasphemy.
Mr Figel said Asia Bibi was “an admirably brave woman and loving mother” who had refused to give up her Christian faith in exchange for immediate freedom.
“Her story and the highly professional supreme court decision can serve as a base for reforms in Pakistan, which has very outdated system of blasphemy legislation easily misused against neighbours and innocent people.”
-
DG DEVCO Seminar HUDIRE, June 2019, on Human Dignity and Religion
#HUDIRE Human Dignity & Religions: Valuing rights through religious studies. BRUSSELS, JUNE 15–16 2019. Organized by The Foundation for religious studies (Fscire, Italy) and the UNESCO Chair in Religious Pluralism and Peace (Italy), together with the Adyan Foundation for Diversity, Solidarity and Human Dignity (Lebanon).
-
Plenary Discussion on Christian Persecution Presentation by EU Special Envoy Jan Figel
HIGH-LEVEL PLENARY DISCUSSION ON PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
hosted by H. E. Dr. Andor Nagy, Ambassador of Hungary in the Republic of Austria and MMag. Dr. Gudrun Kugler, Member of the Austrian Parliament, Speaker of Human Rights for ÖVP-Parliamentary Group
Monday, 27th May 2019, at 18.00 at the Embassy of Hungary (Bankgasse 6, 1010 Vienna).
The main keynote speakers: Tristan Azbej, Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and for the Hungary Helps Program
Jan Figel, EU Special Envoy for Promotion of Freedom of Religion outside the EU
Prof. Ingeborg Gabriel, Personal Representative of the OSCE, Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions
-
Freedom of religion or belief is a litmus test of civil and political rights
Recent bloody attack in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand with 50 dead and over 50 injured was a reminder to the world that religious minorities are objects of attacks and persecution worldwide. These attacks are either sudden, fanatical and demonstrative or long-term and systematic. Their source is either racial or religious hatred by diverse extremist groups or social intolerance or state run discrimination, even persecution.
Forms vary from lynching (e.g. Muslims and Christians in India) through brutal killings (Rohingiyas in Myanmar, Christians, Siks and Ahmadis in Pakistan), terrorism (against Christians and Muslims in Middle East, Egypt, Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan), up to state driven persecution of believers (North Korea, China, Vietnam).
According to reliable data the situation is critical: almost three quarters of the global population are living under high or very high restrictions of religious freedom. And this ratio keeps growing. The situation is a wake-up call to raise awareness, to take serious policy actions and to make a substantial change, similarly to what was done with alarming trends in global warming.
Freedom of religion or belief is a litmus test of civil and political rights. When it is not respected, other human rights are not guaranteed either. Therefore, it covers freedom of thought, conscience and faith and it is the deepest expression of personal freedom and of human dignity. This was one of the reasons why in December 2018 at the 70th anniversary of adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a group of FoRB experts and professors formulated the Declaration on Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere and offered this to the international community (www.dignityforeveryone.org). Signatories of the Punta del Este document expressed not only their commemoration of the UDHR as the key document of current international relations, but also renewed their commitment to support fundamental and universal human rights because these are frequently questioned if not denied. The declaration during the jubilee year is open for all who consider human dignity to be the founding principle and the base of human rights. It also aims at being both an objective and a criterion of policies and measures in all domains of public life.
We are all different in identity, nobody is a copy of anybody. Each of us is authentic and unique original. And at the same time we are all equal in dignity. Nobody is more and nobody is less in dignity, whether he or she comes from a homeless family or from a royal one. Dignity is inviolable and undeniable.
We have dignity and therefore we are right holders and duty bearers. Rights and duties are two sides of one coin. And the same applies to freedom and responsibility. Mature politics oriented to the common good – local, regional, national, European or international one – must keep dignity of each human person at the centre of its service.
http://europeanpost.co/freedom-of-religion-or-belief-is-a-litmus-test-of-civil-and-political-rights/
-
‘Dignity is the foundational principle of all human rights’ – an interview with Ján Figel
Ján Figel is the EU’s Special Envoy for Promotion of Freedom of Religion outside the EU, appointed by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker in 2016. New Europe asked him about the progress made, and what lies ahead for freedom of religion and belief:
New Europe: You have served as the EU Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the EU for now 3 years. What are your most meaningful achievements?
Ján Figel: My exploratory and difficult mission accumulated much political trust outside and inside of the EU and expectations for the future. Several EU Member States created similar positions (Germany, UK, Denmark, Hungary, and Lithuania). I established very constructive cooperation with the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Ahmed Shaheed, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, the OSCE/ODIHR, the Holy See diplomacy, with NGOs, media and civil society in the FoRB area. After two introductory years of intensive work, I succeeded in January through the Grzyb Report to get the European Parliament’s support for continuity and adequate conditions of this mandate for the future, after the EU elections.
Religious freedom and religious social responsibility are much more on the agenda now than at any time before. We decided to get this content repeatedly integrated into the European Development Days. After 25 years of existence, the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize for journalists was enriched by FoRB Prizes (professional and amateur prize). For the first time, there are projects supported by the EU in the area of intercultural and interreligious dialogue to the tune of 5million Euro. I supported the founding of and the successful work of the European Academy of Religion operating since December 2016 in Bologna. Hundreds of scholars from Europe and beyond are working and meeting annually engaging in scientific cooperation around religion studies.
Especially rewarding were my experiences with the release of some persecuted persons, like Czech activist Petr Jašek and his two collaborators in Sudan, human rights defender Ibrahim Mudawi and five other activists in Sudan, or Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan. Human life saved from the hands of injustice or from fanatics is a great encouragement!
Your title makes clear that your mandate concerns non-EU States. Do you think it would be appropriate to include in it the promotion of freedom of religion or belief inside the EU? Why?
I visited many countries and have participated in numerous conferences. The most important missions include Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Israel, Palestine, UAE, and Bahrain. Everywhere I somehow had to respond to questions, doubts or concerns about religious freedom in the EU. I defended our values, principles and commitments which are evident. I am frequently speaking inside the EU on FoRB – in Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, London, Rome, etc, and issues are frequently raised regarding our internal situations.
We need to show consistency in our intra-EU policies if we want to achieve higher credibility outside. Here like in all human rights agenda, double standards in policy is counterproductive. But the internal promotion of FoRB is obviously different, having in mind not only constitutional instruments in all EU Member States but also our Treaty with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Luxembourg European Court of Justice and also the European Convention on Human Rights and the Strasbourg ECHR.
I am sure we do not need nowadays new institutions, but we need a new institutionally-based approach combining external and internal dimensions of FoRB promotion. We need an innovative approach. For example, the European Parliament Intergroup can deal with FoRB situations in both dimensions – outside and inside the EU. Some other European Parliament committees and EU bodies can address FoRB in the EU as well. For example, Treaty Art. 17 Dialogue with churches, religious communities and humanists and non-confessional organisations could be used to reflect on FoRB issues.
You are known to work in an all-inclusive manner with civil society, NGOs and faith-based organization in order to fulfil your mandate. Do you think this to be a key to success and why?
“United in diversity” in this area is a must. There are many opponents of FoRB agenda; there is usual business-oriented dominance at EU meetings and dialogues on security, migration, monetary or economic concerns. Therefore, we need to unite people and groups who care about freedom of thought, conscience, faith or belief. There is open space for secular and religious humanists to work together. I am sure this is the right approach to success. FoRB is our common concern and common good, it is actually a civilizational issue.
And why? I tested such an inclusive approach around human dignity. Dignity is the foundational principle of all human rights, very much resonating with the right for FoRB. And recently we got a great consensual message of diverse scholars and international experts for FoRB and human rights: The Declaration on Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere. I helped to initiate this Declaration. This is a very timely contribution towards the interdependence, indivisibility and importance of universal human rights.
What do you think should be done to improve the efficiency of the EU as regards Freedom of Religion or Belief, either outside or inside of the EU?
My role since May 2016 was a pioneering one. I served as Special Adviser to Commissioner Neven Mimica responsible for development cooperation policy. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Commissioners Mimica and Hahn, DG DEVCO, NEAR, JUST, EEAS and many other parts of EU institutions, like European Parliament President Tajani, Vice-President McGuiness, the European Parliament AFET Committee, the Intergroup on FoRB and RT, Council COHOM were all supportive. A Special Envoy holding an external contract is not fully integrated into the system. But trust and results accumulated during those three years can be now used for a stronger and more efficient approach during the next period.
The first input is better awareness and understanding what FoRB protection means for human rights in general, for good governance and sustainable development. FoRB for all is a condition of security, economic strength and social cohesion. The next step should be the institutionalization of FoRB in the European Union, as we see it in a growing number of EU member states or the USA and Norway. This decision can be made by the future European Commission supported by the newly elected European Parliament. I am sure, conditions are maturing and the momentum is there.
FoRB for all is fully in the spirit of Robert Schuman’s legacy. A permanent EU FoRB Special Envoy with a professional team, with a stronger multiannual mandate correctly integrated within the Commission and the EEAS, working closely with the Council, the Member States and the European Parliament should be established to pursue a permanent and efficient promotion of FoRB for all.