The Foreign Secretary quoted St Paul as she condemned the persecution of religious minorities today.
Addressing the International Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief in London, Liz Truss urged oppressed communities in China, Nigeria, Afghanistan and elsewhere to “be on your guard, stand firm, be courageous, be strong”, in the words of the first Epistle to the Corinthians.
She described Ukraine as the “frontline of freedom of belief” and said that there “religion is proving to be collateral damage from Putin’s aggression”.
“Vladimir Putin and his enablers think Russia is waging a holy war,” she said, “but in truth nothing is sacred.”
In a video message to open the conference, the Prince of Wales described freedom of religion and belief as a principle “close to my heart”.
“Freedom of conscience, of thought and belief is central to any truly flourishing society,” he told the opening plenary. “It allows people to contribute to their communities without fear of exclusion, to exchange ideas without fear of prejudice, and to build relationships without fear of rejection.”
The prime minister also sent a video message, and the Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the special envoy on religious freedom, told delegates that “too many live in fear of persecution because of what they hold in their hearts”.
Other speakers included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Trupti Patel of the Hindu Forum of Britain, and the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who warned of growing antisemitism in Europe and attempts to curtail traditional Jewish practices, such as circumcision and the ritual slaughter of animals.
Speaking on a subsequent panel with the Conservative MP Fiona Bruce, the cross-bench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool emphasised that freedom of religion or belief was “not just a nice thing to have but essential to our security policy and to the protection of human rights”.
Nazila Ghanea, a professor of human rights law at Oxford University, noted the ongoing persecution of the Bahá'í faith in Iran and the Middle East, and the genocides perpetrated against religious minorities in the region. “Once we are calling out genocide it is too late,” she said. Lord Alton agreed, saying that states had a “duty to predict” atrocities.
Describing his experience of campaigning for minorities in Iraq, the Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Matti Warda, said that he was “surprised by level of ignorance about the genocide against the Yazidis”, perpetrated by Islamic State around 2014.
Sam Brownback, the former US Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom, cited these ongoing genocides as cases of religious persecution: “If you care about genocide, you care about religious freedom.” He called for stronger leadership from Europe and the USA, while Tom Farr of the Religious Freedom Institute said that societies in the West had their own problems with antisemitism, Islamophobia, and stigma towards those with traditional beliefs on issues such as sexual ethics.
On Monday, the Foreign Office issued a statement following a review by Lord Ahmad of its response to the 2019 recommendations on the protection of religious freedom, made by the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen. This found that “a majority of recommendations are at an advance stage of delivery or in the process of being delivered, while noting that there is still more to do”.
“We have sent a clear message that the international community will not turn a blind eye to serious and systematic violations of human rights,” said Ms Truss in the statement.
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