Ján Figeľ

Tag: freedom

Religious freedom requires vigilance
HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership (former UTS) held its forty-seventh Commencement in New York City. Ján Figeľ has received a Dr. h. c. Award and delivered a speech to the faculty and graduates.

In 2016, I became the first-ever Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) outside the European Union. It was a time of mass atrocities committed by terrorists and militants of so-called ISIS against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria, and for four demanding years, I visited many countries to promote interfaith dialogue and responsibility. The most satisfying reward of that time was seeing the liberation of several prisoners of conscience in Sudan and Pakistan.

I have seen a lot of human suffering but also unbeatable courage and hope.

Since 2016, many European States followed my pioneering role by nominating their special envoys, ambassadors and plenipotentiaries. Thus, the FoRB protection has become a visible and vital part of European and international cooperation.

If the majority of people come to care about peace, we may indeed see a more humane, more peaceful 21st century. But what is the reality of religious freedom in the 21st century?

The Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., reports that 84% of the global population claims some form of religious affiliation. However, 79% of the global population lives in countries with high or very high obstacles to religious freedom. In short, hundreds of millions of people do not enjoy full religious freedom.

We can see this in government oppression, social hostilities, violent extremism and terrorism. Examples? Christians in Nigeria, Uyghurs in China, Rohingyas in Myanmar. Religious freedom is under growing pressure even in some democratic countries: In Japan, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification is facing painful times.

Religious freedom can be restricted due to necessary public interest, but only in line with three conditions: Legality, legitimacy, proportionality. (For instance, was it right or wrong for governments to put extensive restrictions on communal worship services during COVID-19 pandemics?) Vigilance is crucial for rule of law and for religious freedom to be duly respected in free and democratic countries.

I wish to share three important messages.

The right to religious freedom is the basis for other rights

International law defines FoRB as a freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is a very central human right – defining issues of personal conviction, lifestyle, the basis of cultural and spiritual life, identity, and the principle of belonging to the community of the like-minded.

FoRB is also a very complex right, as it concerns teaching, practice, worship and observance, in private or in public life, alone or in a community, for believers and non-believers. Therefore, one can say FoRB is a litmus test of all human rights.

FoRB represents the triune dimension of the human person: Homo rationalis, h. moralis, h. religiosus. Our rationality, morality, religiosity are inseparable.

Religious freedom requires maturity and responsibility

Freedom is a beautiful but fragile, vulnerable child. She needs to stay close to her wise and brave mother called, Truth. Freedom without truth will die, and will cease to exist. Crisis can be interpreted as a lack of maturity and an absence of balance. There are two sides of each valid coin: Freedom and responsibility, rights and duties.

Whenever I met religious leaders—the grand imams, grand ayatollahs, the Roman Catholic pope, the Coptic pope, the Tibetan dalai lama, and chief rabbis, patriarchs and bishops—I always spoke about religious social responsibility. The integration of Central European nations into the EU and NATO, into Euro Atlantic community of democracies was a result of responsible freedom.

Religious freedom is inextricable from human dignity

If there is a meeting point between the religious and secular worlds, it is human dignity. For true peace, we must dig deeper: We are all different in identity, but we are equal in dignity.

To me, the culture of human dignity operates on two very ancient ethical principles: The silver one stresses equality, respect and tolerance. It says: “Don’t do onto others what you don’t want others to do onto you.”

The golden ethical principle stresses solidarity and reciprocity of justice and common good. It says: “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.”

Upholding human dignity is so essential that in 2018, international scholars, religious and political leaders adopted the Punta del Este Declaration on Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere. This living document is open to signatories from all over the world (www.dignityforeveryone.org).

Evil remains widespread because it has strong allies: Indifference, ignorance and fear. If we don’t care, if we don’t know, if we are scared to say or do something on behalf of the voiceless or the defenseless, evil flourishes.

Let us nurture allies of common good: Education, active engagement, and courage. We can strengthen a growing global religious freedom movement, such as the International Religious Freedom Roundtables, International Religious Freedom Summit, G20 Interfaith Forum, and the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
- Jan Figel, who lived half his life under a communist regime, became the chief negotiator for Slovakia to enter the European Union and became its first EU Commissioner.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jul/6/religious-freedom-requires-vigilance
8 July 2023
Why Japan Should Guarantee Religious Liberty to the Unification Church/Family Federation
Why Japan Should Guarantee Religious Liberty to the Unification Church/Family Federation: A Letter to the Government

Four prominent specialists of freedom of religion or belief—Willy Fautré, Ján Figel’, Massimo Introvigne, and Aaron Rhodes—call for an end to what increasingly appears as a witch hunt.

From left to right, Willy Fautré, Ján Figel’, Massimo Introvigne, and Aaron Rhodes.

Dear Prime Minister Fumio Kishida:

Dear Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi:

Dear Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology Keiko Nagaoka:

We are writing to share some pressing concerns about threats to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) that have emerged in Japan after the tragic assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

We are academics and human rights activists, each with long experience in the field of FoRB. We are also friends of Japan and admirers of its millennia-old culture and vibrant democratic institutions. Many of us counted Japan as a precious ally in international fora when we had to protest human rights and FoRB violations by totalitarian regimes.

Preliminary General Comments

First of all, we wish to introduce three general comments that are essential to appreciate our approach to the issue:
1. The first is that, in our long experience of defending FoRB throughout the world, we have noticed that the rights of certain minority religions are denied by stigmatizing them as “cults.” Most academic scholars of religions have abandoned the word “cult” since the last decades of the 20th century. It has no scientific content and is only used to demonize and repress certain minorities. On December 12, 2022, reforming its previous case law, the European Court of Human Rights agreed with the mainline scholarly position, and in the decision “Tonchev and Others v. Bulgaria”stated that terms such as “cults” or those deriving from the Latin “secta” in languages other than English are “likely to have negative consequences on the exercise of religious freedom” of the members of the groups so stigmatized, and should not be used in official governmental documents. “Brainwashing” is also a category that has been discredited in the academic study of religion since the 20th century by both scholars and courts of law in the United States and several European countries. It is a pseudo-scientific concept used to reinforce the discrimination between “good” religions, which allegedly do not use brainwashing to convert their new members, and “bad” “cults,” which supposedly do. The false notion of “brainwashing” was also used to justify the criminal practice of deprogramming, where adult members of certain religious minorities were kidnapped, illegally detained, and submitted to various forms of violence until they gave up and agreed to abandon their faith.
In 1993, the United Nations Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No. 22 to Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (that Japan has signed and ratified), which deals with FoRB.

Section 2 of General Comment no. 22 states that in Article 18, “The terms ‘belief’ and ‘religion’ are to be broadly construed. Article 18 is not limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions and beliefs with institutional characteristics or practices analogous to those of traditional religions. The Committee therefore views with concern any tendency to discriminate against any religion or belief for any reason, including the fact that they are newly established, or represent religious minorities that may be the subject of hostility.” This is a key point. Majority and popular religions are protected by their own popularity. Article 18 call states to also protect those minority religions that, for whatever reasons, a part of the population may view with hostility.
- A second preliminary comment is that, when attacking minority religions, their opponents and the media often rely on “apostate” ex-members. “Apostate” is not a derogatory term but a technical category introduced by David Bromley and other leading sociologists to identify the minority of ex-members who turn into militant opponents of the groups they have left. “Apostate” is not a synonym of “ex-members.” Most ex-members are not apostates nor are they interested in crusades against their former religious movements. While human suffering should always be respected, and apostate accounts should not be ignored, scholars have repeatedly warned that apostates have an agenda, are not representatives of the majority of former members of a religion, and their narratives tell us more about their feelings and the ideology they have adopted than about the reality of their former movements.
- A third preliminary comment is that, in our secular societies, there is a widespread hostility to religious groups whose members are active in politics. While separation of religion and the state is an important democratic principle, it is also important to affirm that religionists have no less rights than any other citizens to participate in the political life of their nations. We should also be aware that criticism of certain religious minorities is often proposed for political reasons, and hides a political agenda under the narratives of “cult” and “brainwashing.”
The assault on the Unification Church, now Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU)

This background is important to understand our concern about the situation of the Unification Church (UC), now called Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) in Japan, and the campaign aimed at removing its status as a religious corporation. The UC/FFWPU is a stereotypical example of a religious organization targeted by anti-cultists as a “cult” using “brainwashing.”

In Japan, the assault against the UC/FFWPU has been led since 1987 by the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales. There is a significant journalistic and scholarly literature demonstrating that most of the lawyers who established the Network were politically motivated. They wanted to punish the UC and another organization established by the same founder, the International Federation for Victory over Communism, for its anti-Communist activities and its effective support to anti-Communist and conservative politicians.

The question of “spiritual sales”

“Spiritual sales” was a label coined by the opponents of the UC to criticize the sale of certain artifacts, believed to bring spiritual advantages to the buyers, at prices significantly higher than their material value. In fact, the UC as an organization never engaged in such sales. Some of its members did. The UC took measures against abuses in this field and, after the so-called “Declaration of Compliance” of 2009, these sales by UC members substantially stopped. Before the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the number of complaints had decreased to a handful per year, and these sales might be considered a problem of the past. The UC/FFWPU was never found guilty of any criminal wrongdoing in this or other respects, and the conditions justifying an action to remove its religious corporation status are simply not there.

The almost defunct campaign against “spiritual sales” was resurrected after the Abe assassination. Simple donations, normal in all religious groups, were called “non-material spiritual sales,” a strange and self-contradictory concept.

Abusive deprogramming of Church members

Absent in the discussion was, however, a much more serious crime, deprogramming. This obnoxious and criminal practice was actively supported by anti-UC lawyers and continued in Japan from the 1970s to the Supreme Court decision of 2015 on the case of Toru Goto, a UC believer who was detained by his family and the deprogrammers for more than twelve years. The enormous amount of violence and suffering involved in deprogramming should always be considered when trying to understand the harsh relationships between the UC/FFWPU and its opponents in Japan.

Role of apostates in agitation against the Church; Failure of the British Government’s case against the Church

As in other similar cases, the campaign against the UC/FFWPU relies heavily on a few apostate ex-members. One goes under the pseudonym “Sayuri Ogawa” and has been heavily promoted by the anti-UC Network and even introduced to Japan’s Prime Minister. As it has happened with other apostates, in its crucial and essential points her story is demonstrably false, as revealed both by the international FoRB magazine Bitter Winter (a specialized publication that had more than 200 of its articles quoted as reliable sources in the yearly U.S. Department of State reports on freedom of religion of the last four years) and by award-winning Japanese journalist Masumi Fukuda.

This is not a matter of opinion. Ogawa’s parents have submitted dozens of documents proving that their daughter’s story is false. We respectfully suggest that they should have been heard by the Prime Minister and other Japanese authorities as well, as their story is backed by substantial evidence and there is no reason to consider it prejudicially as less true than the one told by Sayuri Ogawa.

In a significant precedent, the British Government was unwise enough to base almost its whole case for the removal of the “charitable status” (very similar to Religious Corporation Status in Japan) from The Unification Church in the United Kingdom, which it launched in 1984, at the behest of the “anti-cult movement,” on the testimonies of “apostates” from the Church. Many of them had been subjected to having their faith forcibly broken by professional “deprogrammers,” and the great majority of them had been influenced by the anti-cult movement in the United Kingdom or in the USA. When this phenomenon was exposed by lawyers representing the Church, the government’s case collapsed, and it was forced to withdraw it entirely and to pay the equivalent at today’s prices of over USD 6 million in costs. The case also put an end to cooperation between the British government and anti-cultists and led to the decision to cooperate instead with academic scholars of new religious movements through an organization called INFORM.

Relying on apostates such as Ogawa is an example of dubious procedural practices or even respect for natural justice that are of deep concern in this case. It seems to us that testimonies hostile to the UC/FFWPU are systematically privileged, that militant opponents of the religious movement are included in official commissions dealing with it, and different opinions and testimonies are not seriously considered.

Threat to the Church’s right to self-organize

We are also concerned about measures introduced in the field of donations to religions and the religious education of children that put at risk the right, not only of the FFWPU but of other groups as well, including the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to self-organize themselves as they deem fit and living according to their spiritual principles. The fact that they may be different from those of the majority does not mean that they should be less protected in a democratic state. FoRB is only affirmed when it is guaranteed to the less popular groups and those that have a significant number of opponents.

The liquidation of the FFWPU would expose Japan to international condemnation, and legitimate attacks on religious freedom in nondemocratic countries

The international FoRB community is watching what is happening in Japan, which represents the most serious FoRB crisis in a democratic country of our century. We hope that all organizations that support and defend FoRB in Japan and internationally would support our appeal. The liquidation of the FFWPU as a religious corporation would be a measure comparable to the actions taken against several religious minorities in China and Russia, and unprecedented in a democratic country. It would also expose Japan to considerable international criticism. What is more, should the Japanese government proceed with this action, it will give cover to assaults on religious groups by authoritarian and totalitarian states around the world, undermining efforts by international human rights institutions to protect religious liberty.

We urge the Japanese government to protect the FoRB of all religious and spiritual groups operating in Japan, including those that have powerful, well-financed, and politically motivated opponents, to withdraw all measures threatening FoRB, and to guarantee to the FFWPU as a religious corporation the peaceful exercise of its right to religious liberty.

We are most grateful for your attention to the foregoing appeal.

Sincerely, Mr. Willy Fautré The Honorable Ján Figel’ Professor Massimo Introvigne Dr. Aaron Rhodes

June 14, 2023

Identification of signatories:

Willy Fautré is former chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and at the Belgian Parliament. He is the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, an NGO based in Brussels that he founded in 1988. His organization defends human rights in general but also the rights of persons belonging to historical religions, non-traditional and new religious movements. It is apolitical and independent from any religion.

He has carried out fact-finding missions on human rights and religious freedom in more than 25 countries. He is a lecturer at various universities in the field of religious freedom and human rights. He has published many articles in university journals about relations between state and religions. He organizes conferences at the European Parliament, including on freedom of religion or belief in China. For years, he has developed religious freedom advocacy in European institutions, at the OSCE, and at the UN.

Ján Figel was EU Commissioner for Education from 2004-9 and Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia from 2010-12 after having successfully acted as Chief Negotiator for Slovakia’s accession to the EU and been State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1989 he participated in the founding of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in Slovakia and from 2009-16 was the party’s President. From 2012-2016 he served as a Vice president of the Slovak Parliament.

From 2016-19 he was the first-ever EU Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) outside the EU and in that capacity was instrumental in the release of FoRB prisoners in Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan.

He is currently a member of the International Council of Experts of the International Freedom of Religion and Belief Alliance (Intergovernmental network) and a member of the International Religious Freedom Summit Global Leadership Council (a civil society-led initiative).

Massimo Introvigne is an Italian sociologist of religion and the author of more than seventy books in the field published by leading academic presses. In 2011, he served as the Representative for combating racism, xenophobia, and religious intolerance and discrimination of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which the United States and Canada are also participating states. From 2012 to 2015 he was the President of the Observatory of Religious Liberty created by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the editor-in-chief of the daily magazine on religious liberty and human rights “Bitter Winter.”

Aaron Rhodes is President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe and Senior Fellow in the Common Sense Society, an international educational network. He was Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights from 1993-2007, and subsequently a founder of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Rhodes is the author of “The Debasement of Human Rights” (Encounter Books 2018) and numerous articles published in the “Wall Street Journal,” the “New York Times,” “Newsweek”, and other publications. Among other honors, he was made an honorary citizen of the Republic of Austria for his human rights contributions.

Why Japan Should Guarantee Religious Liberty to the Unification Church/Family Federation: A Letter to the Government
13 June 2023
On Roots of Freedom and Peace, Schumann Centre – Amsterdam, 5/2023

Ján Figeľ speaking about the roots of freedom and peace.

30 April 2023
On Freedom of Conscience – Vilnius Academic Conference, 4/2023

Ján Figeľ, the former Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Outside the EU, speaking on the topic of freedom of conscience.

29 April 2023
Rights advocate Figel’ says ‘human dignity’ at root of freedoms

Says he is ‘determined,’ not optimistic or pessimistic in campaign

Ján Figeľ lives between two epochs: the first, in which communist forces in what was then Czechoslovakia killed the uncle for whom he is named, and the second, in which Mr. Figel’ carried on the struggle for religious freedom as a European Union envoy.

That uncle “disappeared in the time of Stalin,” the Slovakian human rights campaigner said in an interview with The Washington Times. “It was the elimination of opponents. Stalin used to say, ‘If there is a man, there is a problem. If there is no man, there is no problem.’”

He added, “My uncle, a university student, was eliminated because he had different opinions than the ideological totalitarian regime.”

To this day, the family does not know where that Ján Figel’ is buried, his namesake said.

A former Christian Democratic Movement member of Slovakia’s parliament and a state secretary in the country’s ministry of foreign affairs, Mr. Figel’ led the country’s accession negotiations with the European Union until 2003. He later served as Slovakia’s deputy prime minister and minister for transport, construction and regional development.

His subsequent work as a European Union representative for religious freedom brought him to Washington last week as a speaker at the 2023 International Religious Freedom Summit.

At the summit, Mr. Figel’ said human dignity is foundational to human rights.

“Aggressors, namely even [Russian Federation President Vladimir] Putin, do not speak about dignity, which is a pity, because this deeper reflection would prevent [them] from some barbaric decisions,” he said.

Mr. Figel’ lamented a world in which the lessons of the Second World War and the promise of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights — which turns 75 in December — are largely forgotten.

“We hoped to have a century without wars, but evidently, repetition is part of our journey,” he said.

He said the “moral awakening” that followed the horrors of the Second World War, including the systematic murder of six million Jews and countless others by the Nazis, sparked the UDHR and anti-genocide conventions. Yet genocide continues, in part because “there is not much attention to deeper roots of our values, to reflecting ethical or moral rules, which are important for business, for coexistence, for living together in diversity.”

Mr. Figel’ said “peace in society, basically, is the fruit of justice. And when justice is neglected, and missing or oppressed, then we all have a problem.”

He said change is possible: “Actions of like-minded politicians who care about freedom of religion or belief, and dignity for all, can turn the tide. The 21st century I believe can be more humane if we care more about dignity for all.”

Mr. Figel’ said his belief in human dignity as a cornerstone of freedom led him to help create the 2018 Punta Del Este Declaration supporting “human dignity for everyone, everywhere,” and marking the UDHR’s 70th anniversary.

He also spoke at the IRF Summit about a “Declaration in Support of Fundamental Human Rights and Human Dignity” that was signed by event co-chairs Ambassador Sam Brownback, former envoy for the State Department’s office of international religious freedom, and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett as well as many of the guests at the event.

“The more we have like-minded people, personalities, authorities, organizations, the more chance there is for the culture of human dignity to prevail,” Mr. Figel’ said.

He said he is neither optimistic nor pessimistic in his work.

“I stay determined,” Mr. Figel’ said. “I think that for free people, for mature citizens, a strong will means the best answer. So [it is] not so much about feelings of optimism or pessimism, but commitment.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/6/rights-advocate-jan-fige-says-human-dignity-root-f

7 February 2023
FoRB is an Issue of Life and Death – Assassination of Former PM Abe in Japan

Presentation of Jan Figel at the UNHRC Geneva on January 31, 2023. The Global Human Rights Institution starts its Universal Periodic Review of commitments and their implementation in Japan.

31 January 2023
Ján Figeľ’s Address at the 2nd Conference of Hope

2nd Conference of Hope – Overcoming Threats to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion December 17, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea

The whole event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DcvPB2vD0g&t=3883s&ab_channel=THINKTANK2022

19 December 2022
International Conference Urges Support for Religious Freedom and Human Rights

“Religious freedom is a hallmark of an open society” November 14, 2022 11:31 ET | Source: The Washington Times Foundation

International Conference Urges Support for Religious Freedom and Human Rights

“Religious freedom is a hallmark of an open society”

The greatest difference between open, free societies and authoritarian regimes is respect for human rights and religious freedom, speakers told the Conference of Hope for Universal Human Rights and Religious Freedom, sponsored by The Washington Times Foundation and Think Tank 2022.

The conference, held Nov. 12 in South Korea and livestreamed to millions of viewers globally, concluded with a call to action for people worldwide to sign a Declaration on the Universal Value of Religious Freedom. “We call upon all people throughout the world to stand firmly against all forms of intolerance, prejudice, slander, and hate toward believers of our world’s religions,” says the statement.

“When we speak of human rights, the most basic, fundamental right would be religious freedom,” said Dr. Yun Young Ho, Chairman of the Steering Committee for Think Tank 2022. This right is well-known, he said, noting that freedom of religion was included in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly.

At a time when many religious groups face persecution, intolerance, discrimination, and violence in many countries, this is “a critical moment in which we must unite, we face the truth, and we move forward courageously based on the principles expressed in the Declaration on the Universal Value of Religious Freedom,” said Conference of Hope co-host Thomas P. McDevitt, Chairman of The Washington Times and board member of The Washington Times Foundation.

Speakers pointed to persecution of religious groups including Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Ahmadis, Bahais, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Yazidis, Falun Gong, and, more recently, the Family Federation of World Peace and Unification, formerly the Unification Church, in Japan.

The Chinese Communist Party is “at war with all faiths,” said Ambassador Sam Brownback, former US senator who served as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (2018-2021).

In contrast, “religious freedom is a hallmark of an open society in a democracy” and democracies “must stand for religious freedom for everybody, everywhere, all the time,” he said.

“Why is evil so influential in today’s world? Because it has many allies. Three siblings are the most spread and efficient: Indifference, ignorance and fear (when we don´t care, when we do not know, or when we are scared to say or do something),” said Hon. Jan Figel, First Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion, European Union (2016-2019). “To overcome these siblings, we must invest more into active engagement, lifelong education, and civil courage. Then a century of hope may come, and a culture of human dignity may prevail over extreme violence, aggressive wars and a century of genocides.”

Several speakers addressed the persecution of the Family Federation in Japan that has intensified since the tragic and senseless assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Paris-based CAP Freedom of Conscience, a respected UN NGO, filed a formal complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, saying that Japan’s “national tragedy” has been turned “into a bizarre narrative that makes the alleged assassin into a victim.”

“Religious liberty has been defined by the Holy See as the most violated human right in the 21st century,” said Mr. Massimo Introvigne, Founder and Managing Director, Center for Studies on New Religions in Italy. “The events in Japan prove that the use of the word ‘cult’ to discriminate against and persecute peaceful religious movements has now reached intolerable levels and should be stopped. Those who do not publicly reject and denounce the campaigns against ‘cults’ are not real friends of religious freedom.”

“After World War II, the Soviet Union was aggressively working to bring Japan into the Communist sphere of influence,” said Hon. Newt Gingrich, US House Speaker (1995-1999). Japanese leaders, including Mr. Abe’s grandfather Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, met with Rev. Sun Myung Moon during the Cold War, he said, and “a natural relationship formed between the victory-over-communism movement, Mr. Kishi and many members of the Diet, especially the Liberal Democratic Party.”

Today, “we are seeing that many in the [Japanese] media are trying to dissolve the movement in Japan without any legal due process,” Mr. Gingrich said.

“We are not surprised that so many current and former members of the Liberal Democratic Party and other parties in Japan understood that work with the Universal Peace Federation, co-founded by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, was so important and collaborated with it,” said Pastor Paula White-Cain, former advisor to US President Donald Trump and director of the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. She added, “it is good for Japan, good for the Republic of Korea and for America and good for peace in Northeast Asia and the world.”

Former BBC Correspondent Humphrey Hawksley, who spoke live from London, recalled how the Family Federation and other NGOs helped him lead a BBC crew into North Korea. “The work the church did in the 1990s helped bring about a peace deal that took the prospect of war off the table on the Korean Peninsula, and it has been doing similar work since,” he said.

Cardinal Kelvin Felix, Archbishop emeritus of Castries, Saint Lucia, recalled meeting Japanese volunteers with the Women’s Federation for World Peace in the island nation of Dominica. “For 26 years, they have been conducting art classes at our Teachers’ Training College and in many schools around the country,” while also holding programs to strengthen family unions,” he said.

The Family Federation has had 4,300 of its members in Japan kidnapped and held in forced confinement by highly paid professional “faith breakers” during the last 45 years, said Norishige Kondo, an attorney in Japan who has been serving as legal counsel to the Association of Victims of Kidnappings, Forced Confinement and Conversions. Kidnapped victims have also suffered sexual assault, violence, and threats, he said. In one case, a medical doctor—who had critically ill patients under his care—was held for more than a year by kidnappers. Another man, Toro Goto, was held for more than 12 years. “Mr. Goto was able to maintain his faith,” Mr. Kondo added, “but 70 to 80 percent of the victims of forced conversions and kidnappings lose their faith due to these inhuman and illegal detentions.”

“Religious freedom has long been called the first freedom, like the famed ‘canary in the mine,’ the violation of which warns us of impending danger elsewhere,” said Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at Cato Institute, who specializes in foreign policy and civil liberty.

A group called Open Doors lists 50 of the top persecutors of Christians and other faiths, starting with Afghanistan’s Taliban and North Korea’s regime, said Mr. Bandow. “Governments which refuse to protect us as we seek God—or otherwise address the transcendent—are unlikely to protect us as we exercise our conscience in other ways,” he added, noting that eroding of religious freedom leads to denials of free speech, debate, and elections, and breeds terrible conflicts, including terrorism and genocide.

Prof. W. Cole Durham Jr., who directs the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, recalled how leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) endured decades of persecution, brutal rejection, and bloodshed. Today, the LDS Church is a major denomination, and its members are widely accepted. “Standing up under persecution builds a kind of strength, which is its own reward,” he said. Moreover, surviving persecution leads to “an intensified appreciation of the practical importance of the freedom of religion” and “empathy for the suffering of others,” he said.

The Washington Times Foundation, founded in 1984 in Washington, D.C., hosts numerous programs, including its monthly webcast “The Washington Brief,” to gather expert commentary on issues relating to peace and security in the world. Think Tank 2022, a project of the Universal Peace Federation, regularly mobilizes its worldwide network to promote dialogue, reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Washington Times Foundation and Think Tank 2022 plan to continue sponsoring the Conference of Hope programs to promote peace and security globally—and especially on the Korean Peninsula and the Pacific Rim.

Related links:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/11/prime-minister-abes-assassination-and-japanese-com

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/12/conference-promotes-religious-freedom-as-human-rig

14 November 2022
Open letter to Von Der Leyen: Where is the EU envoy for religious freedom?

Ursula Von Der Leyen. Photo EPA, Sergey Dolzhenko

Dear President Von Der Leyen,

A direct question: Why does the European Union still not have a Special Envoy/High Representative for Religious Freedom and Belief? Why, after the resignation of the Greek Cypriot politician and former EU Commissioner Christos Stylianides more than a year ago, has this position not been renewed? Personally, I would have expected at least a reference to this position, which remained vacant for far too long, during the State of the Union address you held on September 14. Of course, we agree that there are many priorities and the times we live through – between a pandemic and a war at Europe’s doorstep. They force us to think about strengthening the Atlantic Alliance, dealing with the energy crisis, the cost of bills, and technological and production autonomy to not depend on competitor states such as Russia and China. The challenges are many, and no one doubts that. But it is not possible to underestimate the strategic importance of a role that, in addition to being decisive in defence of a fundamental human right, could also increase the position of the EU and its soft power on the international scene.

Good work cannot and must not be lost

Since President Juncker appointed Ján Figel in 2016 as a special envoy for religious freedom and belief outside the European Union. Thus, it responded to an explicit request by the European Parliament – a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Ján Figel’s good work cannot and must not be lost.

His role in the release of Asia Bibi was perhaps his greatest success. Still, we cannot forget his efforts for interreligious dialogue and his denunciations of the situation of persecuted and massacred Christians in the Middle East and Africa. With reduced means and instruments, Ján Figel succeeded in giving the European Union a leading role on the issues of freedom of religion and belief.

Unfortunately, since the non-confirmation of Mr Figel, and seeing how shortly Mr Stylianides held that role, the EU has lost an important space. The UN and all the more evolved and rights-conscious nations have appointed a representative for religious freedom in recent years. Why does the EU still not have anyone? Why has it decided not to invest in such a sensitive and important issue in a changing global world that needs a guide, and can this guide really be European?

The European Union and its leadership try in many ways to respond to the needs of its citizens and the many problems our continent faces. That is an exercise that sometimes even inspires some affection, some hope, but certainly not security. I do not want to join in the criticism of the EU just for the sake of taking sides. The different national interests, the different local sensitivities, and the priorities of citizens – not only different but even opposing – that there may be between Italians and Dutch, between Portuguese and Estonians, make the work of a politician at the European level a particularly complex mission. The differences are there for all to see: from the difficulties in approving the Recovery Fund to the current debate on the cap on gas prices to divergent migration policies or the rule of law in Central and Eastern European countries. All dossiers that pass through the desks of Brussels always suffer before their eventual approval, or the following debates provoke even more fractures and divisions.

Headlines

But there is perhaps something that could unite the EU countries instead of dividing them. It is not something that would hit the headlines or solve the current energy crisis. But perhaps it could prevent some conflicts. It is precisely safeguarding religious freedom, an indispensable value for defining democracies and states under the rule of law and a role from which Europe cannot abdicate.

Hence, here is an appeal to the President of the Commission Von Der Leyen, to the European Commissioner Schinas in charge, to not only re-appoint a special envoy for religious freedom as soon as possible but also to strengthen his or her role in implementing the Community effort on this issue that is so central but so sadly undervalued.

Marco Gombacci

Marco Gombacci was born in 1985 in Trieste, Italy.

Marco Gombacci

He works as EU and foreign affairs analyst. He reported about the Mosul offensive (Iraq), the battle to reconquer Raqqa, from Deir Ezzor (Syria) and Nagorno Karabakh (during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaigian).

He authored the book “Kurdistan. Utopia di un popolo tradito” (ed. Salerno, 2019).

Opinions and articles have been published by Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Daily Express, TgCom45, TG5, Rai1, RaiNews 24, TRECE TV, FRANCE24, La Libre, Le Temps, and many others.

https://cne.news/artikel/1744-open-letter-to-von-der-leyen-where-is-the-eu-envoy-for-religious-freedom

29 September 2022
Asia Bibi sort de son silence

Asia Bibi vit au Canada depuis sa libération, dans un endroit tenu secret, par crainte de représailles de la part de fondamentalistes musulmans. Cette femme catholique, qui a passé des années dans le couloir de la mort après une accusation de « blasphème contre l’islam », s’est confiée le 31 août 2019 sur ses conditions de détention.

Dans son tout premier entretien avec un journal, elle a confié au Sunday Telegraph quel était son désarroi après sa condamnation à mort : « parfois, je perdais courage et me demandais si je sortirais de prison ou non, que se passerait-il ensuite, si je resterais ici toute ma vie », a-t-elle expliqué.

Mais pas question pour elle de montrer sa tristesse à ses proches : « lorsque mes filles me rendaient visite en prison, je n’ai jamais pleuré devant elles, mais après leur départ, je pleurais seule, pleine de douleur et de chagrin ».

Asia Bibi parle de sa peine d’avoir été contrainte de quitter sa patrie, confiant son désir de quitter le continent américain afin de s’installer dans un pays d’Europe.

Selon le département d’Etat américain, il existerait au moins 77 autres personnes détenues au Pakistan en vertu de lois sur le blasphème. L’inculpation peut théoriquement entraîner la peine de mort, mais cette peine n’a pas besoin d’être appliquée par un représentant de l’Etat, car les procès se terminent souvent par un lynchage collectif.

L’un des diplomates européens qui a contribué à négocier le départ d’Asia Bibi du Pakistan, le slovaque Jan Figel, a évoqué dans les colonnes du Sunday Telegraph « une femme admirablement courageuse, une mère aimante qui avait refusé d’abandonner sa foi chrétienne en échange d’une liberté immédiate », comme elle aurait pu le faire en apostasiant. Mais la foi l’a emporté.

https://fsspx.news/fr/asia-bibi-sort-de-son-silence-50503

18 September 2019