NGO Committee on FoRB: Latest News

The organizers of the International Religious Freedom Summit (IRF) 2025, Katrina Sweat and Senator Brockbank, introduced the event as the largest religious freedom summit in the world. They emphasized that religious freedom is foundational and essential for authentic human flourishing and individual human dignity. This event’s aims were to promote religious freedom for everyone, everywhere … Continue reading Religious Freedom Priorities: A Summary of the International Religious Freedom Summit 2025

In February of this year, Professor  Nazila Ghanea, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief,  submitted a proper report on the link between torture prevention and religious liberty. Having served for almost three decades  in international human rights law, Ghanea provides a quite understandable interpretation of this concept.  The  main thesis of the … Continue reading The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion Or Belief Presents Key Links Between Religious Freedom and Torture Prevention

Freedom of worship is tenuous around the globe. The Pew Research Center’s latest annual report found “high” or “very high” levels of government constraints on religion in 59 of the 198 countries and territories it analyzed – a new record. When Pew began releasing reports on the issue in 2007, just 40 countries’ restrictions on religion were … Continue reading Religious freedom is routinely curbed in Central Asia – but you won’t often see it making international news

February 6, 2024, Washington, D.C. – The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), Pepperdine University, and the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit are pleased to announce the convening of IRF Summit Africa on June 16, 2025. This groundbreaking assembly will galvanize the religious freedom movement throughout Africa to take action in response to an intensifying crisis of religious persecution on … Continue reading The Religious Freedom Institute, Pepperdine University, and the International Religious Freedom Summit Announce ‘IRF Summit Africa’

Religious law expert Sophie van Bijsterveld does not expect the European Court of Justice to oblige churches to delete entries from baptismal registers on request. In an interview with the Dutch Katholiek Nieuwsblad (Wednesday) the Professor of Religion, Law and Society at the University of Nijmegen referred to decisions by supervisory authorities and courts in other EU … Continue reading Expert on religious rights does not expect obligation to delete baptismal records

Under threat of deportation to Iran, they call on the EU to grant them political asylum By Willy Fautre 1 February 2025 Under threat of deportation to Iran, they call on the EU to grant them political asylum On 5 January 2025, police officers in Karaman (Turkey) raided the home of an Iranian couple looking … Continue reading Peaceful Iranians arrested in Turkey for publicly manifesting their religious beliefs

A man who sparked violent protests after burning the Quran has been shot dead in Sweden. Salwan Momika was killed in an apartment in Södertälje, Stockholm, on Wednesday evening, prosecutors told the BBC. Unrest broke out after Mr Momika set fire to a copy of Islam's holy book outside Stockholm Central Mosque in 2023. Stockholm … Continue reading Man who burned Quran ‘shot dead in Sweden’

Kazakhstan does not give up attempts to adopt a new law ‘on religion’. Another draft law is promised to be put up for discussion this January. However, the society is not sure about the necessity of adopting a new law. The fact that Kazakhstan’s society is becoming increasingly religious is evidenced by various studies. According … Continue reading Does Kazakhstan need a new law ‘on religion’?