By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)
NEW YORK. (ANS. SEPT. 23, 2013) --
In the face of rising persecution of people due to their faith or
belief, over 100 parliamentarians from almost 50 countries met on Sept.
18 in New York to discuss ways to advance religious freedoms.
According to a story by World Watch Monitor (WWM), 130 delegates packed into a room that was booked for fewer than 40.
Thirty others had to be turned away from the meeting, which was organized by the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief to coincide with the 70th UN General Assembly.
“It's an idea for which the
time is right,” said Aykan Erdemir, a Turkish academic and a member of
the Turkish parliament until recently.
He added that people advocating rights should be as “outspoken, organized and transnational” as the violent extremists.
Delegates signed the New
York Resolution for Freedom of Religion or Belief, which pledges them to
advance religious freedoms for all, in accordance with Article 18 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
WWM said the resolution
calls on signatories to encourage and equip more politicians around the
world to focus on religious freedoms, including those in countries known
to violate Article 18.
The delegates also expressed
their commitment to advocacy by sending three letters to heads of
states considered to be violating these rights.
The letters, which asked for
the state to intervene in cases of people imprisoned for their faith,
and expressed concern about new laws that will restrict religious
freedom, were issued to Burma's President, the Prime Minister of
Vietnam and the Speaker of Iran's parliament.
WWM said all three countries
rank in the top 25 on Christian charity Open Doors' list of the places
where Christians face the worst persecution.
The network of
parliamentarians launched last year at the Nobel Peace Center in Norway,
in response to the rising crisis of religious persecution by terrorist
groups and authoritarian governments.
The International Panel
(IPP) is led by British peer, Baroness Berridge; Norwegian MP Abid Raja;
Canadian MP David Anderson, and Leonardo Quintao of Brazil's National
Congress.
Since its inception it has
created parliamentary membership groups in Pakistan, Brazil and Norway
to add to those already operating in the British, US and Canadian
governments and the European Union.
Baroness Berridge (UK), IPP
Steering Group member, said in the WWM story, “There is a global crisis
for freedom of religion or belief. An international problem requires an
international response. Our meetings in New York will bring together
parliamentarians, diplomats, civil society and religious leaders to
devise strategies to defend this fundamental right. Collective action is
needed now more than ever.”
Abid Raja (MP, Norway), IPP
Steering Group member also said in the story, “The migration crisis
facing Europe is fueled in part by religious extremism and persecution.
It is positive that what we launched at the Nobel Peace Center last
year continues to grow, as the problems continue to grow as well.”
Germany, whose Chancellor
Merkel threw her European partners into some disarray by announcing last
week, “If we now have to start apologizing for showing a friendly face
in response to emergency situations, then that's not my country,” had a
high profile at the gathering.
German foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, had provided funding to bring them together in New York.
Volker Kauder, one of the
leaders of the German parliament, opened the meeting speaking about the
plight of religious freedom in the Middle East. WWM said he urged the UN
to address the matter at the General Assembly, scheduled to discuss
international security on Oct. 1-2.
Katrina Lantos Swett from
the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the daughter of
Holocaust survivors, said she felt “so happy to see the way Germany is
stepping up on so many fronts.”
David Saperstein, the US
State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious
Freedom, urged the delegates “not to separate religious freedom from
other issues, but to see it as foundational in every kind of policy.”
WWM said he encouraged them
to hold hearings, issue statements, and attend trials for the
persecuted, saying that he was encouraged after attending the trial of
two South Sudanese pastors who were subsequently acquitted of serious
charges and released.
"The history of Europe shows that we have all been refugees," said
Peter van Dalen, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, who also
heads up the parliament's Intergroup on Religious Freedom.
Van Dalen mentioned that his family fled persecution by Huguenots in France and settled in the Netherlands.
Delegates at the meeting
also heard from Naghmeh Abedini, WWM said. She is an American whose
husband, Pastor Saeed Abedini, is imprisoned in Iran for his Christian
faith.
Parliamentarians from numerous countries attended. The group plans to meet again in 2016 in Berlin.
For more information visit www.worldwatchmonitor.org
Photo caption: 1) IPPFORB
meeting at the UN Hotel in New York was full to capacity, Sept 2015
(IPPFORB). 2) Jeremy and Elma Reynalds.
About the writer: Jeremy
Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a
freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New
Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He
has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in
Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional
details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com.
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