Tag: Human rights

Cuba: Religious-freedom advocate freed after two days’ detention

March 6, 2018 Cuba Churches, Cuba, Human rights, Religious freedom, Santa Clara

A church in Cuba. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A prominent Cuban religious-freedom advocate was released on Friday (2 March) after two days in detention, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Leonardo Rodríguez Alonso was arrested while on his way home from meetings with human-rights defenders on 28 February, and held without charge in the Provincial Unit for Investigations in the . . . Read More

Amnesty: ‘Discrimination rife in all regions of the world … with deadly consequences’

February 23, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Boko Haram, Censorship, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulani herdsmen, Gujrat, Human rights, Iran, Lakshan Dias, Marawi, Mardan, Nadeem Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Religious freedom, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa

Buddhist flags are waved during a mass demonstration against Christianity in Sri Lanka, April 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A review of the human-rights situation in 159 countries during 2017, published by Amnesty International yesterday (22 February), shows that religious persecution continues in the form of threats, attacks, extrajudicial killings and even genocide, while harsh sentences continue to be handed out – sometimes even death sentences – for changing . . . Read More

Turkish state blocks election of a new Armenian Patriarch

February 22, 2018 Turkey Armenians, Binali Yildirim, Greek Orthodox, Human rights, Istanbul, Minorities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Turkey

For the sixth time since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the government of constitutionally “secular” Turkey has openly intervened in the selection of a new Armenian Patriarch to lead the nation’s largest Christian community. Now estimated at less than 40,000, Turkey’s Armenian community – located primarily in . . . Read More

Indonesia church attacker acted alone, police say

February 15, 2018 Indonesia Ahok, Bogor, Churches, GKI Yasmin, Human rights, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Java, Joko Widodo, Nahdlatul Ulama, Protestants, Religious freedom, Sulawesi, Yogyakarta

Altar of the Stasi Kinali Catholic Church, West-Sumatra, Indonesia, which was attacked in May 2014. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The man accused of injuring four people in an attack on an Indonesian church on Sunday morning (11 February) acted alone and obtained the weapon – a one-metre-long sword – in exchange for his mobile phone, police say. The suspect, a 23-year-old student identified as Suliyono from Bayuwangi in East . . . Read More

New report finds ‘flicker of hope’ in North Korea

February 7, 2018 North Korea Human rights, North Korea

A new report on North Korea finds that over the last decade there has been a shift in people’s attitudes away from being “passive recipients” serving the regime to being motivated “change-makers” shaping their own destiny. Movies, markets and mass surveillance: human rights in North Korea after a decade of . . . Read More

Bomb scare intimidates another church in Turkey

February 7, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Armenians, Balikesir, Bursa, Churches, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Human rights, Istanbul, Izmir, Malatya, Mersin, Middle East, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Trabzon, Turkey

Trabzon church in a 2007 photo (World Watch Monitor)

Turkish police were called to Trabzon’s Santa Maria Catholic Church on Sunday morning (4 February) to examine a smouldering device spotted in the garden by alarmed church staff. After discovering a partially burned homemade pipe bomb, which had failed to explode, local authorities promptly checked the church’s security camera footage. . . . Read More

A Middle Eastern Christian’s view of Pence’s agenda

January 22, 2018 Donald Trump, Egypt, Human rights, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, Mike Pence, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Saudi Arabia, Syria, USA, West Bank

A Jordanian Christian trauma counsellor has urged US Vice President Mike Pence to recognise Palestinian statehood to make good his pledge to help Christians in the Middle East. Issam Smeir, who has worked with refugees in the Middle East and in the US, wrote a first-person piece for the Washington . . . Read More

Could Pakistan’s place on US ‘Watch List’ create more problems for minorities?

January 11, 2018 Pakistan Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Human rights, Joseph Colony, Minorities, Multan, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Taliban, USA

The US State Department last week placed Pakistan on a ‘Special Watch List’ for “severe violations of religious freedom”. The US did not, however, go as far as adding it to its ten ‘Countries of Particular Concern’* – for countries where “governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and . . . Read More

Egypt’s human rights move dismissed as ploy to win back US aid

January 10, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Human rights, Kidnapping, Minya, Muslim Brotherhood, Sohag

Efforts by the Egyptian government to improve its record on human rights are aimed primarily at persuading the US government to reinstate its generous aid package, Coptic activists have said. Last month Egypt announced it would set up 60 human-rights departments across the country to record complaints from citizens of . . . Read More

Maldives activist investigated for ‘blasphemy’ over ‘religions other than Islam’ tweet

January 8, 2018 Maldives Abdulla Yameen, Apostasy, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamic extremism, Maldives, Religious freedom, Sharia

An activist in the Maldives has received death threats and is being investigated for “blasphemy” after posting a tweet in response to President Abdulla Yameen’s comment that his government would not allow any other religion in the country than Islam. Shahindha Ismail, executive director of the Maldives Democracy Network, tweeted: . . . Read More

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