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Holy See appeals to U.N. for effective religious freedom
Zenith (11.11.2002 ) / HRWF Int. (29.10.2002) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The Vatican appealed to the international community for more effective respect of religious freedom and firmly condemned recourse to violence in the name of religion.
Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the observer delegation of the Holy See to the United Nations, made the appeal Friday to the General Assembly, which was discussing human rights questions.
After publicly congratulating Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, new High Commissioner for Human Rights, who is replacing Mary Robinson of Ireland, Archbishop Martino said that John Paul II maintains that, among "the fundamental freedoms which the Church must defend, first place naturally goes to religious freedom."
"The right to freedom of religion is so closely linked to other fundamental rights that it can rightly be argued that respect for religious freedom is, as it were, a touchstone for the observance of other fundamental rights," Archbishop Martino said.
"The Holy See is especially concerned that in many parts of the world, discriminatory or intolerant policies continue, with regard to minorities in states having an official religion," he continued.
"Additional matters of concern are the combining of ethnic and religious persecution in many parts of the world and the blatant disregard and disrespect for churches, religious shrines or sites," he added.
"Religion expresses the deepest dreams, hopes and desires of the human person," said the archbishop, who is also the new president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
"Religious faith helps to shape people's vision of the world and affects their relationships with others," he said. "Indeed, different peoples and cultures throughout history and throughout the world testify to the many and varied ways in which humankind addresses the meaning of creation, history and personal existence.
"The right to life, the right to freedom of religion or belief, and respect for religious and cultural heritage are the basic premises for human existence."
He added: "The fact that there are still many places today where the right to gather for worship is either not recognized or is limited to the members of one religion alone, or where religious belief is pushed aside in the name of development or modern thought, is a sad commentary on any claim to a more just, peaceful world where fundamental rights and freedoms are more widely promoted and respected."
Lastly, the archbishop expressed the Catholic Church's conviction "that recourse to violence, in the name of religious belief, is a perversion of the very teachings of the major religions."
"The use of violence can never claim a religious justification, nor can it foster the growth of true religious feeling," he emphasized.
"Differences between religious traditions must be accepted, respected and tolerated," the archbishop emphasized. "The practice of any faith must be conducted with respect for other religious traditions. Religious tolerance must be based on the conviction that God wishes to be adored by people who are free. This is a conviction which requires us to respect and honor personal conscience, wherein each person meets God."
"The people of the world continue to be scandalized by the sharp divisions that manifest themselves in the destruction of human life in the name of religion," he lamented.
"The Holy See renews its call to all women and men of faith everywhere, to commit themselves courageously to the path that leads to peace, tolerance and understanding," the archbishop added.
"This call is not impossible to hear nor is it an invitation impossible to accept," he said. "It is, however an essential element to building a world in which all people can live in peace and harmony with one another."
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U.N. asks 16 states to probe religious intolerance
By Thalif Deen
Inter Press Service (23.10. 2002) UNITED NATIONS / HRWF Int. (24.10.2002) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The United Nations has written to 16 member states, urging them to investigate widespread complaints of religious extremism and intolerance against individuals and ethnic groups.
The letters, from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Abdelfattah Amor, were sent to Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nigeria, Pakistan, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United States and Zimbabwe.
The most damaging complaints received by the United Nations were against the United States.
Since the terrorist attacks in September last year, there have reportedly been 520 violent incidents in the United States, all of them directed against Arab-Muslims or those perceived to be such.
Additionally, there are 27 confirmed cases in which persons perceived to be Arab-Muslims have been expelled from aircraft after or during boarding on the grounds that passengers or crews did not like the way they looked.
In a report to the U.N. General Assembly, Amor says there have also been hundreds of cases of employment discrimination against Arab-Muslim Americans and others, including numerous terminations.
The U.S. Justice Department is said to have profiled some 5,000 names of persons it wants to talk with. ''Most of these are chosen on the basis of ethnic or religious profiling,'' the report said.
Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) also identified about 5,000 persons living in the United States to be contacted for ''voluntary interviews'', the purpose of which was to gather information about al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups believed responsible for the attacks on the United States last year.
The special rapporteur, Amor, has also received a number of complaints regarding investigations involving alleged arbitrary and extended detention, denial of counsel, and prisoners being held incommunicado.
Responding to the charges, the U.S. government said that the Department of Justice took ''immediate action'' to prevent the surge in hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims and Sikhs - who are often mistaken for Muslims.
In a letter to Amor, the United States said it has created a Hate Crimes Working Group to monitor, investigate and prosecute those accused of committing such crimes.
Concerning the allegations of discrimination by airlines, the United States said directives have been sent by the Department of Transportation to remind U.S. carriers of the various federal statutes which prohibit unlawful discrimination against air travelers.
Airline passengers have also been encouraged to file complaints when they thought they had been subjected to discrimination.
The complaints against China, mostly by members of the spiritual sect Falun Gong, which has been banned by Beijing as a political sect, and the Protestant South China Church, were equally serious.
Since 1999, the report said, 361 members of Falun Gong are said to have died in detention, 80 of them as a result of torture between October 2001 and January 2002.
It is also alleged that about 100,000 practitioners of Falun Gong have been detained and more than 20,000 have been sent to forced labor camps without any trial.
The report specifically focuses on Wei Yanjiang, a Falun Gong practitioner, who began a hunger strike in December following ill treatment suffered at a police station in Beijing.
It is alleged that after 18 days of hunger strike, she was sent to a labor camp where she was exposed to fresh torture and ill treatment.
Responding to the charges, China admitted that she was taken into ''administrative detention for disrupting public order and has spent a year in re-education through labor''.
She was also detained a second time, the letter said, and assigned to three years' ''re-education through labor in accordance with the law''.
''Since her admission, the re-education facility has throughout treated her sympathetically, educating her and trying to win her back - it has at no time employed any sort of verbal or physical abuse on her,'' the Chinese government said.
The complaints against Egypt were mostly from Coptic Christians who have complained of a string of assaults against them, as well as their churches.
''These actions, which have allegedly resulted in the destruction of at least nine churches in the last five years, are believed to be frequently unpunished,'' the report said.
In its reply, the Egyptian government detailed the steps taken to restore security, the judicial procedures initiated against those responsible, and the efforts to reconcile the communities.
This, the letter said, led to the establishment of a commission to evaluate the damage caused by the clashes and to proceed to necessary reparations at the expense of the state.
The U.N. report also singled out India for the inter-religious violence in the western state of Gujarat that began in late February this year. A total of some 544 people died in six days, most of them Muslims.
All in all, the round of communal violence that raged for two months after the Feb. 27 train incident that trigged the violence -- India's worst religious violence in a decade - left 2,000 people dead and 150,000 others homeless.
In its response, India pointed out the existing constitutional provisions and special measures for the welfare of minorities.
Among the measures taken to restore confidence were visits by senior officials to riot-affected areas, activation of peace committees, posting of officers in sensitive places, adequate compensation for victims of riots, and rebuilding of mosques.
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