Iran: ‘staggering’ number of Christians arrested – 114 in a week

Iran: ‘staggering’ number of Christians arrested – 114 in a week
Over 100 Christians have been arrested in Iran in the past week and nearly 150 in the past month, as part of the government’s attempt to “warn” Christians against proselytising over Christmas, according to the advocacy director of religious freedom charity Article 18. Mansour Borji called the number of arrests . . . Read More

China has transformed Xinjiang into a ‘mass detention camp’ – UN

China's government has had an "anti terror" campaign in majority-Muslim Xinjiang region - meaning increased surveillance, arrests and detention. (Photo: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)
The United Nations has raised alarm over the tens of thousands of Uyghur Muslims being held in detention centres in Xinjiang, northwest China. In a report last Thursday, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said the Chinese government had “transformed the autonomous region of the Uyghurs into . . . Read More

Freed Czech charity worker recalls finding hell and heaven in Sudan’s jails

Freed Czech charity worker recalls finding hell and heaven in Sudan’s jails
The Czech aid worker who spent 14 ½ months behind bars in Sudan has said he counted his experience a “privilege” because it enabled him to share his Christian faith with Sudanese prisoners, and praised the country’s “very courageous” Christian minority. Petr Jašek also told World Watch Monitor that two . . . Read More

North Korea tells US to drop ‘anachronistic human rights racket’

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North Korea has called on the United States to stop its “anachronistic human rights racket” as talks continue between the two countries, AP reports. The US House of Representatives recently promised that “complete, verifiable, and irreversible human rights improvements” in North Korea were a necessary part of any deal, while . . . Read More

Reconciliation with Ethiopia could improve human rights in Eritrea – UN rapporteur

Reconciliation with Ethiopia could improve human rights in Eritrea – UN rapporteur
As relations between Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea show signs of improvement, the UN’s rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea has called for the momentum to be used to improve human rights conditions in the country. “While peace is being negotiated, while rapprochement is happening, one would make sure that . . . Read More

Chinese pastor released after two and a half years in prison

Pastor Yang Hua (Release International)
A Chinese pastor was released yesterday (19 June), after being detained for two and a half years for “illegally possessing state secrets”, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Pastor Yang Hua of Huoshi Church (which means Living Stone), in the south-western province of Guizhou, was arrested in December 2015. He was . . . Read More

North Koreans ‘betrayed’ by human rights omission in Trump-Kim agreement

After meeting Kim Jong-un in Singapore, US President Donald Trump said the many North Koreans currently being held in forced-labour camps were “one of the great winners today”. (Photo: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images)
North Koreans were “betrayed” by the failure of US President Donald Trump to include human rights provisions in his agreement with the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, following their historic meeting in Singapore, according to Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director, Phil Robertson. “The North Korean people have suffered for so long,” . . . Read More

US religious freedom report shows ‘no progress’ in Myanmar

Displaced Kachin residents cross the Malikha river on 26 April to escape the fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government troops. (Photo: ZAU RING HPARA/AFP/Getty Images)
Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the countries criticised for their religious-freedom records in the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2017, launched yesterday (29 May) in Washington DC. The report references the violence against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar, whose situation is still . . . Read More