Christianity

(asked on 9th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to assist persecuted Christians around the world; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
David Lidington Portrait
David Lidington
This question was answered on 13th October 2014

The promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief is one of the UK’s human rights priorities. We regularly raise individual cases and work to combat discriminatory legislation and practices through multilateral systems and targeted project work. In the last month Ministers have made public statements expressing grave concern about persecution of individuals on grounds of their religion or belief in Syria, Pakistan and Iraq.

As an example, in the recent high profile case of Meriam Ibrahim who was forced to leave Sudan because she refused to renounce Christianity, My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister, My Rt Hon Friend Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, My Hon Friend, the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Mr Duddridge) The Minister for Africa, all publicly condemned her sentencing, and called on the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion or belief and international human rights laws. However, Meriam Ibrahim's case is not an isolated occurrence. This is why we are calling on the Sudanese government to undertake a comprehensive review of its penal code to ensure its laws reflect both its own constitution and international human rights obligations and the values of the Sudanese people.

We are active in our project work in a wide range of countries. In Iraq, we are currently funding a series of grassroots meetings, bringing together people from different faiths to combat sectarian violence. The work is being led by Canon Andrew White, who has played a key role in forming the High Council of Religious Leaders in Iraq. In Syria, we are funding the training of religious and community leaders from the Sunni, Alawite, Christian, Druze, Armenian and Kurdish communities in active citizenship and dialogue skills in order to help reduce community tensions. We continue to fund training for Syrian activists to document abuses to a criminal law standard with the aim that this documentation could be used in a future process of accountability.

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