Tajikistan (39th Session)

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UPR

Tajikistan (39th Session)

ADF International is a faith-based legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people. As well as having ECOSOC consultative status with the United Nations (registered name ‘Alliance Defending Freedom’), ADF International has accreditation with the European Commission and Parliament, and the Organization of American States. ADF International is also a participant in the FRA Fundamental Rights Platform.

This report highlights the severe restrictions on freedom of religion in Tajikistan, including barriers to church registration, the unjustified monitoring of religious activities, censoring of religious materials and the prohibition of children from participating in religious activities. It also highlights the impact of the country’s laws and policies on combating extremism on both freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression.

Tanzania (39th Session)

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UPR

Tanzania (39th Session)

ADF International is a faith-based legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people. We act before national and international institutions and have ECOSOC consultative status with the United Nations (registered name “Alliance Defending Freedom”), accreditation with the Organization of American States, and are registered with the EU Transparency Register. ADF International is also a participant in the FRA Fundamental Rights Platform.

This report focuses on Tanzania’s persisting challenges relating to the protection and promotion of freedom of religion or belief in the mainland as well as in Zanzibar where Christians continue to experience discrimination and violence. It also highlights Tanzania’s failure to guarantee freedom of expression and how it can improve its severely poor maternal mortality rate.

Thailand (39th Session)

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UPR

Thailand (39th Session)

ADF International is a faith-based legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people before national and international institutions. As well as having ECOSOC consultative status with the United Nations (registered name “Alliance Defending Freedom”), ADF International has accreditation with the European Commission and Parliament, and the Organization of American States. ADF International is also a participant in the FRA Fundamental Rights Platform.

This report outlines a variety of legal and practical challenges to the right to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression in Thailand, especially for religious minorities. Additionally, in light of the recently amended abortion law and the surrounding social pressure, it highlights the challenges with underage pregnancy and the importance of preserving the right to life of the unborn.

A ‘Precious Asset’?

In its first judgement on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Strasbourg Court held that freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is ‘a precious asset for atheists, agnostics, sceptics and the unconcerned’.

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The Rise of Faux Rights

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White Paper

The Rise of Faux Rights

The United Nations and its various entities are supposed to be committed to the protection and promotion of fundamental, universal human rights. Yet increasingly, individual UN entities promote new conceptions of rights not universally agreed by Member States.

Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response

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White Paper

Anti-Conversion Laws

Four countries in South and Southeast Asia—India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bhutan—have laws that severely regulate religious conversion. Government officials and the police, in line with increasingly nationalist politicians and lawmakers, selectively enforce these laws, effectively banning conversion from the majority religion to a minority religion, in particular Christianity and Islam. This article examines the language of these anti-conversion laws, the political and religious contexts in which they became law, and their effects on religious minorities.

Freedom of Conscience

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Brief

The Freedom of Conscience

A common appeal to conscience is the phrase ‘I couldn’t live with myself if I…’
It shows the strength of conscientious conviction. It is a concept which has crossed between the religious and secular divide through the ages and is understood by some as a moral constraint upon behaviour which might implore someone to act (or not act) in a particular way.

EU-OACPS Partnership Agreement – Pacific Region

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EU-OACPS Partnership Agreement – Pacific Region

The Partnership Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), formerly known as the ACP Group of States, is a draft treaty covering a broad range of thematic areas including peace and security, sustainable development, migration and, notably, human rights. Negotiations on the Agreement began in September 2018 and formally concluded on 15 April 2021.

While the Agreement builds on, and is intended to replace, the Cotonou Agreement of 2000, its scope has been expanded to cover new areas, such as “Human Rights, Democracy and Governance in People-Centred and Rights-based Societies” and “Human and Social Development”. Under the guise of advancing inter alia gender equality and the empowerment of women, the document introduces several controversial elements. The inclusion of these elements far exceeds the original scope of the negotiating mandate of the OACPS.

EU-OACPS Partnership Agreement – Caribbean Region

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EU-OACPS Partnership Agreement – Caribbean Region

The Partnership Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), formerly known as the ACP Group of States, is a draft treaty covering a broad range of thematic areas including peace and security, sustainable development, migration and, notably, human rights. Negotiations on the Agreement began in September 2018 and formally concluded on 15 April 2021.

While the Agreement builds on, and is intended to replace, the Cotonou Agreement of 2000, its scope has been expanded to cover new areas, such as “Human Rights, Democracy and Governance in People-Centred and Rights-based Societies” and “Human and Social Development”. Under the guise of advancing inter alia gender equality and the empowerment of women, the document introduces several controversial elements. The inclusion of these elements far exceeds the original scope of the negotiating mandate of the OACPS.