Janusz Wojciechowski, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, honourable Members of the European Parliament, the European Union defends the right of every individual to freedom of religion and belief.
Marginalisation and scapegoating of persons belonging to religious minorities and atheists can be an early warning or already a sign of more severe persecution that, in turn, can drive to conflict and even a wider crackdown on the whole of society.
I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Karol Karski and all Members of the European Parliament who have contributed to this timely report on the persecution of minorities on the grounds of belief or religion, which provides clearer recommendations on how the European Union should continue to spearhead the protection and promotion of freedom of religion or belief.
We take good note of some key recommendations, such as the need to increase public diplomacy on freedom of religion or belief, to work on the situation of minorities in conflict situations and the protection of religious cities, as well as the strong call to the European Union to continue its firm action at multilateral level.
In line with the European Union action plan on human rights and democracy, freedom of religion or belief remains an essential priority of our external human rights policy. Accordingly, many EU delegations have enshrined it as a priority in their human rights country strategies. Let me assure you that the EU stands in solidarity with the victims.
The line with all our partners across the world is clear: the European Union consistently and unequivocally condemns discrimination, intolerance, persecution and violence against, or by, any person based on grounds of religion or belief. We call on countries to protect the right for everybody to have or not have a religion or belief, to manifest or to change their religion or belief, while condemning the criminalisation of apostasy and the abuse of blasphemy laws.
Over the past year, we carried out key actions to promote and protect freedom of religion or belief, such as raising our concerns of violations in around 20 human rights dialogues, issuing high-level statements such as an EU declaration on the occasion of the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Religious Persecution and through our work in multilateral fora.
The latest resolution on freedom of religion or belief, adopted by consensus during the last Human Rights Council session, renewed the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. In addition, we also closely exchanged on freedom of religion or belief with regional organisations, in particular the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, through regular senior official meetings or the Istanbul Process.
We look forward to continue cooperating closely with the European Parliament in identifying and addressing the most serious violations of freedom of religion or belief around the world.
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MEP Peter VanDalen: Thank you, president. I co-operated on this report. Particular attention to the persecution of religious minorities is scant in this Parliament. I was pleased to be involved in producing this report. We need to look at specific names and organizations persecuted because of their religious beliefs. No names were listed in the report and that is a shame. I would point to a report put together by the Intergroup for Religious Freedoms. I am co-chair together with another MEP and in this report, you can see what happened between 2017 and 2021 and you will see many tangible examples of individuals persecuted for their religious beliefs. So I would urge you to download this report and read it. We in the Parliament need to follow up on this, and I would urge the Commission to look at religious persecution. This has taken far too long.
MEP Bert-Jan RUISSEN: Thank you, President. My thanks also to the rapporteur for presenting this report. A useful report on the persecution of religious minorities. I share his concerns with Mr Van Dalen. Christians are barely named in this report. I think that is a shame. I really don’t understand the fact that in this report the faithful are criticized for their position on abortion. It is indefensible. This is a subject that goes beyond the scope of this report. It is not the point of the report. Last but not least, it is important that we protect life, including the life of the unborn. We shouldn’t be criticizing the faithful. We should praise them for their concerns and their care for the life of all. Thank you.
