Search Results for: european religious freedom

Peter Russell was a leading Canadian scholar of constitutional law who taught at the University of Toronto from 1958 to 1997.  Numerous Canadian Supreme Court judges have read and cited his work in their rulings. Professor Russell passed away on January 10, leaving behind an enormously rich academic legacy. Known for his openness, Peter Russell [...]

In this piece Chris Blackburn, Communications Director of the European Bangladesh Forum and co-founder of Global Friends of Afghanistan, highlights the severe human rights abuses in Pakistan, including the misuse of blasphemy laws and the repression of political movements and activists, and calls for international actions such as Pakistan’s suspension from the Commonwealth to pressure [...]

The Court of The Hague issued its ruling on Monday in the case of two Pakistani individuals who had called on the public to assassinate Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The court delivered its ruling just a week after the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced plans to prosecute the two Pakistani nationals, a 56-year-old religious leader and [...]

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliament, approved the Law on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine (No. 8371), which bans religious organisations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine on Tuesday. Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, announced the results of the plenary session. The [...]

Far-right movements gaining popularity in many European countries are primarily anti-immigrant and anti-Islam. This study examines Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a far-right political party in Germany. Founded in 2013, the party launched the AfD manifesto, a public document approved at its Federal Party Congress held in Stuttgart from April 30 to May 1 2016. Presently, [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International called for the European Union (EU) to urge the government of India to end human rights abuses in a joint statement released Monday ahead of the EU-India Human Rights Dialogue. HRW and Amnesty International, alongside Front Line Defenders, the World Organisation Against Torture and Christian Solidarity Worldwide, called [...]

The EU Monday expressed concerns about what it called the “very serious human rights situation” in China, particularly in Xingjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong during the the 39th session of the Joint Human Rights Dialogue in Chongqing in China. The EU highlighted the “vulnerable situation” of people of religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities in China [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that Azerbaijan violated speech protections under the European Convention on Human Rights when it blocked the websites several news outlets in 2017 – 2018. The case concerns Azerbaijan’s complete blocking of the websites azadliq.org, anaxeber.az, az24saat.org and xural.com in 2017-2018. National courts decided to block [...]

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution last week establishing a commemoration day for the 1995 killings of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica and to formally recognize the event as genocide. Proposed by Germany and Rwanda, two countries with a unique history dealing with genocide in the 20th century, and [...]

The Flemish Community’s ban on wearing any visible symbols during the educational activities does not run counter to freedom of religion, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday. It followed the decision given by the Constitutional Court in Belgium assessing based on the c0ncept of neutrality. In the case of Mikyas and Others [...]