Worldwide: Religious Freedom Increasingly Threatened

The human right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) is being increasingly disregarded. This is the conclusion reached by the editors of the German “Religious Freedom” yearbook. At the presentation of the latest edition recently in Berlin, co-founder Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, President of the International Council of the ISHR, explained:

“Worldwide, in hardly any region has the situation of religious freedom and human rights improved over the past ten years.”

Human rights experts are particularly concerned about developments in the Middle East with their impact on Europe, Turkey and especially Germany. Other hotspots are in Africa, India and China. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Tibetan Buddhists are being persecuted by the state. In Sri Lanka, Christians and Muslims are coming under pressure from Buddhist nationalism, partly due to discrimination by the authorities and partly due to violent attacks by extremists. Experts are also concerned about the rise of Islamism in Bangladesh, as well as threatened religious freedom in Myanmar, which affects both Muslims and Christians.

Copies of the double book—Yearbook “Religious Freedom” and Yearbook “Persecution and Discrimination of Christians”—are still available free of charge from the office of the German section of the ISHR. We will be happy to send you a copy if you send a request to: info@igfm.de.

• Thomas Schirrmacher, Martin Lessenthin and Martin Warnecke (eds.). Yearbook Religionsfreiheit 2024. Studien zur Religionsfreiheit Vol. 42. Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft: Bonn, 2024.