Every year, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organizes in Warsaw The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. This is the largest annual human rights conference and it gathers government officials from 57 participating States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, international experts, civil society representatives and human rights activists. Its purpose is to review the implementation of the human dimension commitments by the states and to look at ways to enhance the compliance with those commitments, as violations of fundamental rights undermine peace and stability in the whole OSCE area. All the participants can speech on an equal footing during the sessions.
During three sessions of the Meeting which took place on 29 and 30 September 2015, states and NGOs could raise the situation of Christians and Christianity in the OSCE area: the first one on hate crimes, the second on tolerance and non-discrimination and the third on freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.
The ECLJ participated in all of them, delivering four statements in which it mentioned concrete facts against Christians in Europe and made recommendations to the participating States and to OSCE/ODIHR, to redress this situation and to secure the effective exercise of their fundamental rights.
Hate Crimes and Hate Speech
For the OSCE, hate crime is a criminal act (considered so under criminal law) committed with a bias motivation (preconceived opinions, stereotypical assumptions, intolerance or hatred directed towards a particular group that shares a common characteristic, e.g. religion). Various forms of hate crimes and hate speech were denounced. In its first statement, Evident and Subtle Hate Crimes against Christians, the ECLJ denounced, on one hand, the destruction and profanation of churches and graveyards, and on the other, the misuse of Christian symbols in the production of “artistic” works.
This social hostility against Christians and crimes against people and places of worship, cemeteries and other religious properties due to religious hatred was also mentioned by “Giuseppe Dossetti” Observatory for Religious Tolerance and Freedomin Italy. Recalling the State’s obligation to protect individuals and punish perpetrators and to prevent hate crimes from being committed, it underlined the importance of data collection to understand and address hate crimes. It recommended States to provide data on hate crimes against Christians, to compile and publish a national report, to train public officials (law enforcement agencies and prosecutors) and to adopt national action plan to prevent and respond to these crimes. It encouraged OSCE/ODHIR to train and to develop guidelines for educators on countering intolerance against Christians.
The ECLJ statement, Hatred against Christians in France, delivered on behalf of “L’Observatoire de la Christianophobie” was in the same vein. It showed that hatred against Christians is not a faraway reality, but it exists in France and one should fight against it.
’Observatoire indicated that 186 acts against Christians were committed in 2014 in France. All of them were reported by direct witnesses or in the media. Nevertheless, quite often, victims do not report them to the authorities. A set of recommendations were made to the States and OSCE/ODIHR, which derive from its difficulties encountered in France. The French Government, exercising its right of reply, affirmed that hate crimes in France are systematically punished; that in April an Action Plan was put in place to fight against racism and xenophobia and a dialogue with the Muslims was started.
Other crimes against Christians were exposed in Ukraine (Ukrainian Orthodox Church denounced the Russian propaganda among its priests and Russian Orthodox Church alleged of 23 Orthodox parishes transferred to the Ukrainian Orthodox Patriarchate), Kosovo (the situation of Serbian Christians and their churches), Turkey (the situation of Greek Orthodox and their non-returned churches) in Turkey.
Core Issues Trustreported the ban, by the UK’s leading mental health organizations, against their members to offer professional support to help people change their homosexual feelings and behavior and the UK’s Government consideration to criminalize professionals offering such help. It criticized the un-censored propagation of hate-speech term “bigot” describing the Christian views.
On the contrary, but also to defend Christians, ADF International spoke up against criminalizing hate speech, as church leaders are subject to criminal investigation for saying what their religion teaches about marriage, sexuality and the family or for reading from the Bible. It called for the repellence of hate speech laws in order to ensure free exchange in the marketplace of ideas.
Center for Security Policy, considering that truth can never constitute hate speech and that State control of speech through hate crimes/speech narrative is an Orwellian assault to the very definition of free speech, recommended not making Orwell a prophet not to criminalize Islamophobia as such.
Tolerance and Non-Discrimination
Under this section, the ECLJ delivered a statement, Discrimination of Christians and Christianity in Society, noting the growing hostility and discrimination against Christians and Christianity. It asked that Christians should be treated with justice and not with tolerance, as requesting tolerance would mean that their behavior or faith is evil, unjust and irrational. Or Christian faith depends on reason and for centuries Christianity built and shaped the Western civilization.
The Holy See delivered a statement decrying that “Christians remain, year in, year out, the religious group most persecuted and discriminated against worldwide. (…) Even more disturbing is the lack of a proper response from the civil authorities, political leaders, social officials and media towards such acts. (…) Tolerance toward one view can never lead to intolerance towards others. Intolerance in the mane of “tolerance” must be named for what it is and publically condemned.” The Holy See also called for the institution of an International Day against Discrimination of Christians together with the OSCE and ODIHR.
“Giuseppe Dossetti” Observatory for Religious Tolerance and Freedomrecalled that it is outdated to talk about minority and majority communities in the context of intolerance and discrimination, as the inherent dignity of the human person is equally violated. It underlined that the situation of Christian in the OSCE area is serious and it represents a real threat to the security and stability of the region.
The Values Foundation, reminding that “Christianity has shaped the values of many of the European nations and many of the freedoms we are all seeking to protect originate from Christianity”, called especially on UK to implement its equality policies without losing the benefits of Christianity and without marginalizing Christians from public life.
CitizenGoand Barnabas Fund deplored the situation of the Christians in the Middle East, requesting the International community to protect them.
Act for America 5280 Coalition denounced the intolerance of Islamic entities after Danish Cartoons and Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks of historical facts at Regensburg Conference, for example, requesting that complaints from these communities should be ignored until they show tolerance for the West.
Atheist Ireland made a peculiar statement considering that atheists are discriminated against in education in Ireland, as the schools are funded by the state and 90% of them run by Catholic Church and not by the state. Although it supports the law proposal to protect Catholic LGBT teachers, it asked OSCE to request Ireland and Holy See to end religious discrimination of atheists.
Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion or Belief
During this session, in its statement, The Right to Conscientious Objection in the Medical Field, the ECLJ requested the effective respect of the right to conscientious objection in lawful medical care, as doctors, nurses, midwives, students for medical professions, pharmacists and health institutions still cannot effectively exercise their right to conscientious objection. They are obliged to participate to acts contrary to their conscience or fired for acting according with their conscience. Moreover, high public servant insult them (midwife Ellinor Grimmark was compared to Jihadists by Swedish Ministry of Justice) and call for black-listing them (Spanish UNESCO Chair of Bioethics called for a national registry of doctors who will not perform abortions).
The Holy See noted that freedom of religion of Christians is more and more limited and that some request Catholic Church to change its teaching and positions regarding the human person. It recalled that “A correct understanding of the nature of freedom of religion or belief (…) is rooted in the transcendent dignity of the human person which can never be superseded by apparently competing rights. It includes, at both individual and collective levels, not only freedom of worship, but also the freedom to follow one’s conscience in religious matters and the freedom to live coherently by manifesting one’s views in public”. It reminded the “State’s commitment to pursue freedom of religion or belief includes the duty to protect adequately public manifestations of religious belief”.
Novae Terrae Foundation reported on the long registration processes, onerous registration requirements for the acquisition of the legal personality of the religious communities, as well as the violation of their autonomy. It welcomed, as ADF International and “Giuseppe Dossetti” Observatory, the new OSCE/ODIHR Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities a benchmark document that contains international standards at disposal of those involved in drafting, reviewing and applying the relevant legislation. Illegitimate expropriation of places of worship and other religious properties, violations of the right to conscientious objection, of the right to identify oneself through religious symbols and attire, of the right of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children according to their convictions were criticized by “Giuseppe Dossetti” Observatory.
Wuestenstrom Germany exposed the damage produced among teenagers by not age-appropriate sex education and gender ideology in schools. It also worried about the acceptance of the Rodrigues Report by the European parliament on 9 September, seeing in them a violation of the right of Christian parents to educate their children.
Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe documented over the last eight years over 1 500 incidents of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in the region West Vienna and invited the states and NGOs to contribute to the ODIHR annual report. It recommended to the states to combat underreporting, to be aware of unintended discrimination, which could be caused as a side effect of antidiscrimination or equality policies (e.g. EU Fifth Equal Treatment Directive) and to combat persecution of Christians outside of OSCE area a priority of foreign policy. It advised to OSCE to develop materials on how to combat intolerance against Christians, as manuals on how to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination against Muslims have already been developed.
ODHIR has been reporting on hate crimes and responses to this phenomenon since 2008. Nevertheless, systematic under-recording and under-reporting of hate crimes across the region- by the States and NGOs is noted, especially related to Christians.
Therefore, we encourage NGOs to record and report hate crimes against Christians and to encourage the national Governments to do so, too, on this reporting website. You can find here more details on how to report annually hate crimes against Christians. The instructions should be carefully followed, as any inaccurate reporting will not be taken into account.
Videos:
Hate Crimes in Europe against Christians:
Hatred Against Christians in France:
ECLJ Statement for l'Observatoire de la Christianophobie
Discrimination of Christians and Christianity in Society:
The Right to Conscientious Objection in the Medical Field:
Andreea Popescu, ECLJ, 6 October 2015
Places of worship closed during Covid: will the ECHR dare to condemn abusive restrictions?By ECLJ
Video: Ex-Muslim Christians in FranceBy ECLJ
Algerian Law Against the Religious Freedom of ChristiansBy Thibault van den Bossche
The worrying increase in attacks on Christian sites in TurkeyBy Thibault van den Bossche