Religion and Human Rights: Home

Each year, this organisation reviews the human rights issues around the global in their report. On this site you can click through the reported human rights issues by country. The resources include text as well as video.

"Our list isn’t ranked, and far from exhaustive – we acknowledge it doesn’t include many human rights struggles worthy of greater attention. But, in flagging some of the issues needing urgent attention, we hope to gather support for the broader movement that strives to achieve justice and secure dignity for more people ... "

"The article presents notes on church-state affairs in various countries including Algeria, Australia and China. Topics include the United Nations Human Rights Committee has urged the government of Algeria to stop harassing its Christian minority, member of the Australian Senate, Fraser Anning called for a White Australia immigration policy, and school authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region warned parents that students may not take part in religious activities during summer vacation ... "

"My article explores multiple belonging in the contemporary world with a focus on feminist liberative praxis, Buddhist and Christian, addressing the human rights of women and girls. My aim is not to compare and contrast each religious tradition point by point. Rather, I explore the parameters of multiple belonging traversing religious and secular spheres. As a feminist, and Buddhist practitioner, my gender, ethnicity, and social background have not been without challenges. Multiple belonging informs how I practice, teach, and engage human rights and peacebuilding across difference, and through an intersectional lens. The resonant theme in my article is the inextricable link between the spiritual, political, and personal pursuit of liberation. Article 29 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights enjoins us to exercise our moral responsibility to the global community by virtue of our birthright into the human family. This responsibility extends to all sentient and non-sentient life. Religious and secular resources may be mutually supportive in this endeavor. Thus multiple belonging addresses our interdependence as a global community ... "

"In the article, the author discusses how Christians can effectively deal with displaced and threatened group of people. Other topics include religious freedom, the discrimination, displacement, and threats faced by religious minorities, fundamentalism or religious extremism, religious nationalism, and genocide ... "

"Israel continued to impose institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians living under its rule in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israeli forces killed 38 Palestinians, including 11 children, during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank; many were unlawfully killed while posing no imminent threat to life ... "

"Israel’s maintains entrenched discriminatory systems that treat Palestinians unequally. Its over half-century-long occupation of the West Bank and Gaza involves systematic rights abuses, including collective punishment, routine use of excessive lethal force against protesters, and prolonged administrative detention without charge or trial for hundreds ... "

"Israel continued to impose institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians living under its rule in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israeli forces killed 38 Palestinians, including 11 children, during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank; many were unlawfully killed while posing no imminent threat to life. Israel failed to ensure accountability and redress for victims of such grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law ... "

"Warring parties in the Syrian conflict continue to disregard human rights and humanitarian law protections. Over 400,000 have died since 2011. The Syrian government, with the support of its allies, raced to secure territories, using prohibited chemical weapons, unlawful indiscriminate attacks, and withholding humanitarian aid, while anti-government groups indiscriminately attacked government-held areas and prevented civilians fleeing ... "

"Parties to the armed conflict in Syria continued to commit with impunity serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, and gross human rights abuses. Government and allied forces carried out indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects using aerial and artillery bombing, killing and injuring hundreds of people in Idlib and Hama in north-west Syria. Government forces continued restricting access to humanitarian and medical aid to civilians living in government-controlled areas ... "

"The author condemns the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to attack Syria with Tomahawk cruise missiles, despite his opposition to chemical attacks in Syria and states that violence could not be used as a strategy for peace, referring views of bishop Oscar Cantú on human rights in Syria ..."

"A UN human rights report published today urges the Government of Venezuela to take immediate, concrete measures to halt and remedy the grave violations of economic, social, civil, political and cultural rights documented in the country ... "

"Venezuela continued to experience an unprecedented human rights crisis. Extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force and unlawful killings by the security forces continued as part of a policy of repression to silence dissent. The political and institutional crisis deepened in the first months of the year, resulting in heightened tensions between the Executive under Nicolás Maduro and the Legislature headed by Juan Guaidó ... "

"The accumulation of power in the executive branch that began during the presidency of Hugo Chávez has enabled Venezuelan authorities to intimidate, censor, and punish its critics ... "

"The article offers information on humanitarian crisis in modern Venezuelan history which is unfolding against the backdrop of a power struggle between President Nicolás Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Topics discussed include that the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization confirmed in 2018 that the rate of undernourishment in Venezuela has more than doubled, from less than 5 percent between 2008 and 2013 to 11.7 percent between 2015 and 2017 ... "

"The authorities heavily suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Security forces used lethal force unlawfully to crush protests, killing hundreds, and arbitrarily detaining thousands of protesters. The authorities arbitrarily detained over 200 human rights defenders and imposed sentences of imprisonment and flogging against many of them. A new law allowed Iranian women married to men with foreign nationality to pass on Iranian citizenship to their children, but women continued to face discrimination and the authorities intensified their crackdown against women’s rights defenders campaigning against forced veiling laws ... "

"Iranian judicial authorities have dramatically increased the cost of peaceful dissent, sentencing dozens of human rights defenders and activists to decades-long prison sentences. As broad United States sanctions impact Iranians’ access to health and essential medicines, authorities maintain a tight grip over peaceful assembly, particularly labor-related protests ... "

"Empirical evidence suggests that the elites and state officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran are engaged in gross violations of the fundamental rights of its religious and ethnic minority populations ... "

"Militias, armed groups and security forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Fighting in and around Tripoli between forces and militias loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) killed scores of civilians, injured hundreds more and displaced tens of thousands. Militias, armed groups and security forces arbitrarily detained thousands of people, most indefinitely without any judicial process. They also took some hostage for ransoms or to press for the release of a detainee or captive. Torture and other ill-treatment were widespread in prisons, detention centres and unofficial places of detention ... "

"Armed conflicts since April 2019 have deepened the humanitarian, political, and security crises The Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord and a rival government based in eastern Libya that is aligned with the so-called Libyan National Army, an armed group, continue to compete for legitimacy and territorial control, each side backed militarily by other countries ... "

"Recent developments have attracted further international attention to, and criticism of, human rights abuses and violations of the laws of warfare in Libya, in particular by Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA). However, entrenched divisions over the conflict in Libya and support from influential players for the major backers of the LNA suggest that these will result in little meaningful pressure for change ... "

"All parties to the conflict in Yemen committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. Huthi forces, which controlled large parts of the country, indiscriminately shelled residential neighbourhoods in Yemen and launched missiles indiscriminately into Saudi Arabia. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which supported the internationally recognized Yemeni government, continued to bomb civilian infrastructure and carry out indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians ... "

"The armed conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi armed group as well as the humanitarian crisis has contributed to creating unspeakable suffering for millions of civilians. The conflict has killed and injured thousands of civilians ... "

"The military committed serious human rights violations, including war crimes, in Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan States. The government made no progress in creating conditions conducive to the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of the 740,000 Rohingya women, men, and children who fled to Bangladesh beginning in August 2017 ... "

"Myanmar has defied international calls to investigate military atrocities and crimes against humanity committed against ethnic Rohingya, including mass killings, sexual violence, and widespread arson ... "

Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

"Aung San Suu Kyi was once a beacon for democracy and human rights in Myanmar. Now, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been accused of defending genocide in her own country ... "

"The year was marked by a deepening economic crisis, excessive use of force and unlawful killings by Sudanese security forces against peaceful protesters which resulted in at least 177 people killed and thousands injured. Security forces used live ammunition against demonstrators, beat them on the streets and in hospitals and arbitrarily detained thousands who faced torture and other ill-treatment in detention ... "

"Nationwide protests that started December 2018 led to the ousting of Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir, after 29 years of authoritarian rule. Military and civilian leaders signed a power-sharing deal in August 2019 forming a transitional government. The transitional period faces many challenges including Sudan’s economic crisis ... "

"The authorities continued to impose severe restrictions on freedom of movement and access to information. Widespread and systematic controls over the daily lives of people and frequent pressing of the public into labour mobilizations severely affected the enjoyment of human rights. Foreign media reported several public executions. People in detention experienced torture and other ill-treatment and harsh conditions ... "

"Under the rule of Kim Jong-Un, North Korea remains among the world’s most repressive countries. The government sharply curtails all basic liberties, including freedom of expression, religion and conscience, assembly, and association. It prohibits political opposition, independent media, civil society, or trade unions ... "

"Australia has joined a group of 23 countries including Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan and Canada to condemn China's treatment of Uighur and other minorities in the western Xinjiang region ... "

"China is facing growing criticism over its persecution of some Muslim minority groups, huge numbers of whom are allegedly being held in internment camps ... "

"The Chinese government is expanding detention camps in an effort to suppress the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, China

"The Uighurs, a Muslim minority ethnic group of around 12 million in northwest China, are required by the police to carry their smartphones and IDs listing their ethnicity ... "

"The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 100 times to 134 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2019, 107 individuals and 27 organizations. Since the International Committee of the Red Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two times (in 1954 and 1981), there are 24 individual organizations which have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Click on the links to get more information ... "

" ... Medications should only be given when they have a therapeutic value. Medication for the purposes of controlling behavior without a therapeutic purpose is chemical restraint. The long-term, continual use of this practice on older people with dementia in aged care facilities in Australia appears to be driven by a number of factors, including understaffing of aged care facilities and inadequate training in dementia support, leading to an inability to appropriately support the needs of people with dementia ... "

"Australia’s health and aged care ministers should immediately revise an aged care regulation to prohibit chemical restraint, Human Rights Watch and Aged & Disability Advocacy Australia said today in a letter to the two ministers. Chemical restraint involves giving older people with dementia drugs to control their behavior ... "

"Dementia Australia today welcomed the Australian Greens policy release and their human rights based approach to aged care ... "