Peers in the House of Lords on Thursday highlighted the issue of the negligence of the right to freedom of religion and belief.
Crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool put forward the debate to call for greater priority to be given by Britain and the international community to upholding freedom of religion and belief globally.
Among those who will speak at the debate were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby; the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks; and Baroness Berridge, who chairs the All Party Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief. This group has recently issued a report describing Article 18, as “an orphaned right”.
In his speech Lord Alton highlighted crimes against humanity perpetrated by terrorist groups such as Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, as well as state-sponsored religious discrimination in Burma and Sudan.
Writing in The Times today, Archbishop Welby argued that "to take away a person's freedom of belief or non-belief is to violate the core of their humanity". But also stressed that people should be free to criticise certain beliefs, "religious freedom demands space to be challenged and offended without responding destructively."
He also recalled his first-hand experience of religious violence while visiting Anglican provinces around the world. Earlier this year the archbishop visited Egypt to offer his condolences to the families of the 21 Copts murdered by Islamist State extremists in Libya.
In response to human catastrophes such as the Holocaust and the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights was codified to insist: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
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