Ken Camp / Managing Editor / Baptiststandard.com Advocates for international religious freedom praised the U.S. House of Representatives for passing legislation to hold accountable the Myanmar military for human rights violations and to authorize humanitarian assistance to the Burmese people. The House passed the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021 with broad bipartisan support on April 6. …
Biden Administration Rules Myanmar Army Committed Genocide Against Rohingya
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) – Biden administration has formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar’s military amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, U.S. officials told Reuters, a move that advocates say should bolster efforts to hold the junta that now runs Myanmar accountable. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the decision on Monday at the …
Religious freedom data project launches
By Abigail Mittendorf and Katelyn Aluise The Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences recently launched a project mapping disparities in religious freedom worldwide in collaboration with two non-governmental organizations. Officials at the Loeb Institute teamed up with 21Wilberforce and Genocide Watch to create and publish the Religious Freedom Data Spectrum that uses qualitative data to locate places of religious oppression and identify early warning …
ISIS slaughtered my Yazidi community. We don’t want your pity — we want justice.
Opinion by Nadia Murad. August 2021, reprinted from edition.CNN.com (CNN)Thoughts and prayers. Promises of “never again.” They are not enough. Seven years after ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidi community, my ethno-religious minority, in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people remain internally displaced and more than 2,800 women and children remain missing. Shelter, clean water, health care and education are …
Whispered Prayers, Hidden Bibles, Secretly Scribbled Verses: Inside the Resilient Faith of the #BringBackOurGirls Hostages
Why they wouldn’t bow to Boko Haram. JOE PARKINSON AND DREW HINSHAW|JUNE 21, 2021 Reprinted from Christianitytoday.com They were the world’s most famous hostages, yet no one seemed to know what it had taken to bring them home or how they had survived. Members of the class of 2014 at Nigeria’s Chibok Government Secondary School for Girls had been …
Just a Bill: Religious Freedom Consensus Rarely Voted into Law
Latest IRF scorecard grades each member of US Congress, as State Department releases annual report on 200 countries and territories. JAYSON CASPER|MAY 13, 2021 Reprinted from Christianitytoday.com Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out Saudi Arabia. The Gulf kingdom “remains the only country in the world without a Christian church, though there are more than a million Christians living …
Eyes on Egypt: Why the Ongoing Persecution of Coptic Christians Warrants Our Attention
By 21Wilberforce Associate Emma Hodges Violent attacks, arbitrary detentions, and a growing culture of impunity for crimes committed against the Coptic community in Egypt should raise international consternation—yet the persecution continues with few consequences. Recognizing an unbroken succession of Patriarchs since Saint Mark himself, the Coptic Church has remained a vibrant presence in Egypt since its founding. In the third …
Congressman Frank Wolf and Ambassador Sam Brownback: Friends and Human Rights Champions for Four Decades
This year, 21Wilberforce awards Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback its 3rd annual Frank Wolf Award for International Religious Freedom. While in Congress, former Representative Frank Wolf was a tireless advocate for religious freedom. In like manner, this award honors those who champion freedom of conscience around the world. Ambassador Brownback was raised in the small agricultural community of …
A Uyghur Muslim Reveals the Horror of Prison Camp She Escaped in China
This article is reprinted from the Dailymail.co.uk October 2019 A Uyghur Muslim woman who was forced into a Chinese ‘re-education center’ so she could teach the inmates has revealed the full horror of life at the prison camp after she escaped. Sayragul Sauytbay, 43, was forced to spend five months at one of the camps in Xinjiang province between 2017 …