Religious freedom is “under threat in almost every third country in the world,” says the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a report released on Thursday, which found a “sharp deterioration” in most of those countries over the past two years .
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“We count 61 countries where citizens have experienced serious violations of religious freedom,” writes ACN, which listed 62 countries in its previous report.
According to the EDA, the internal situation has deteriorated in 47 countries and improved in only nine since the last report.
As an international foundation under papal law, the ACN examines the situation of all religious communities in 196 countries every two years. For the 16th edition of her report, which covers the period from May 2021 to December 2022, she worked with around 30 academics, missionaries, human rights activists and journalists.
In the last two years, “persecutions” (assassination attempts, deportations, exiles, conversions and forced marriages, dispossessions) have been counted in 28 countries (51.6% of the world’s population), compared to 26 in 2021. “Of these 28 countries, 13 are in Africa, where the situation has deteriorated sharply in many regions.” China and India were also “among the worst violations of religious freedom”.
In addition, according to the AED, “discrimination” (denial or restriction of access to employment, emergency assistance, justice, real estate) occurred in 33 other countries (36 in 2021). “In 13 of those countries, the situation has deteriorated.”
Religious freedom is being attacked either by “authoritarian governments,” by “Islamist extremism,” or by “ethno-religious nationalism,” the organization lists.
In their opinion, “a combination of terrorist attacks, destruction of cultural heritage and religious symbols (Turkey, Syria), manipulation of the electoral system (Nigeria, Iraq), mass surveillance (China), dissemination of anti-conversion measures and financial restrictions (South Africa). East Asia and the Middle East) has increased oppression of all faith communities.”
The NGO notes an “increasing persecution of Muslims, also by other Muslims”, especially “between Sunnis and Shiites” and refers in particular to the situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan.
It also notes that “reported attacks on the Jewish community in the West have increased following the Covid-19-related lockdown.” “Reported anti-Semitic hate crimes in OSCE countries increased from 582 in 2019 to 1,367 in 2021.” Those figures come from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, she told AFP.