Dr Hassan Aydinli attended the ODIHR/Venice Commission Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities Launch Event at the EU Parliament

Dr Hassan Aydinli, ITF EU representative,  attended the ODIHR/Venice Commission Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities Launch Event at the EU Parliament

BRUSSELS 4th February, 2015

The event was chaired by MEP Dennis de Jong, Co-President of the Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance.

1.The freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental right, as recognized in international instruments and OSCE commitments. International standards specify that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes the freedom to manifest one's religion or belief, either alone or in community with others, in public or in private, through worship, teaching, practice and observance.

2. The terms "religion" and "belief" are to be broadly construed. A starting point for defining the application of freedom of religion or belief must be the self-definition of religion or belief, though of course the authorities have a certain competence to apply some objective, formal criteria to determine if indeed these terms are applicable to the specific case. There is a great diversity of religions and beliefs;  The freedom of religion or belief is therefore not limited in its application to traditional religions and beliefs or to religions and beliefs with institutional characteristics or practices analogous to those traditional views.  The freedom of religion or beliefs protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.

3. The freedom of religion or belief is closely linked to other human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as, in particular, the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly and association" and the right to non-discrimination.

4. The freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of one's choice, which includes the right to change one's religion or belief, may not be subject to any limitations.

5. The freedom to manifest a religion or belief may only be limited if each of the following criteria is fulfilled:

A. The limitation is prescribed by law;
B. The limitation has the purpose of protecting public safety, (public) order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
C. The limitation is necessary for the achievement of one of these purposes and proportionhate to the intended aim; and
D. The limitation is not imposed for discriminatory purposes or applied in a discriminatory manner.

6. Limitations must not be applied in a manner that would vitiate the freedom or religion or belief. In interpreting the scope of permissible limitation clauses, states should proceed from the need to protect the rights guaranteed under international instruments.

.......
There are three other points which I will not mention in this brief report.



Abbreviations:
ODIHR: Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
OSCE: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
ECHR: European Convention on Human Rights

About the Venice Commission:

The European Commission for Democracy through Law - better known as the Venice Commission as it meets in Venice - is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters.

The role of the Venice Commission is to provide legal advice to its member states and, in particular, to help states wishing to bring their legal and institutional structures into line with European standards and international experience in the fields of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

It also helps to ensure the dissemination and consolidation of a common constitutional heritage, playing a unique role in conflict management, and provides emergency constitutional aid to states in transition.

The Commission has 59 member states, the 47 Council of Europe member states, plus 12 other countries (Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Tunisia and the USA).

Source: OSCE/ODIHR.
Excerpt from:
 'Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities' published by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. (Poland)
www.osce.org/odihr

ITF EU representative attended the Conference "The State of Freedom of Religion or Belief in the World" at the EU Parliament

ITF EU representative Dr Hassan Aydinli and the Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) Mr. Willy Fautré.

ITF EU Representative and Mr. Jean-Bernard Bolvin, Policy Officer, Human Rights Policy Instruments and Bilateral Cooperation European External Action Service (EEAS).

At a conference held in Brussels on February, 12 the European Parliament Working Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief (EPWG), co-chaired by MEPs Peter van Dalen (ECR) and Dennis de Jong (GUE/NGL), presented its first annual report on freedom of religion in the world. The report takes stock of developments regarding religious freedom and concludes that this human right is increasingly violated, around the globe. The report proposes to give the promotion of religious freedom a more prominent place in EU foreign policy. It furthermore makes recommendations for EU action in case of fifteen countries where the situation is particularly dire.

Namely: China, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan.


The report was presented at a conference jointly organised with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, who also presented their annual report. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, gave the keynote speech.


The conference welcomed the adoption of EU Guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief, by the EU Member States last year. Participants agreed that this was a major step, however, the process of ensuring a thorough implementation has only just begun. Also, complementing measures were needed.


MEP Peter van Dalen said:

"Today is a sad day as right now many millions of people are bullied, discriminated, persecuted and even killed for their faith. I hope that our work may contribute towards improving this situation."



"We made several recommendations on specific countries. On Egypt for example, we would like the EU to unfreeze the aid pledged, but tie it to human rights conditions; Coptic Christians must be able to freely and safely practise their faith. On Pakistan, we demand that hate speech be scrapped from school books, in particular where they are subsidized by the EU! On India, we'd like to see the states who have introduced anti-conversion legislation, to repeal those provisions."



MEP Dennis de Jong said:

"I am grateful for the co-operation we developed with the EEAS on the EU Guidelines. However, we now need to follow this up through an informal dialogue on the toolkit which will serve as an instrument for embassies and EU delegations to implement the Guidelines."



"Similarly, we need to further develop our dialogue with the EEAS also on the countries of concern: we identified many such countries and we now have to focus on the instruments the EU and the Member States have to help to change the situation in these countries."



Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt said:

"I see an enormous practical potential in the EU Guidelines, in harnessing the existing capacities of the EU and its Member States to make Freedom of Religion or Belief a reality. I value the Working Group's strategic role in promoting the Guidelines and their efficient implementation. The European Parliament would be well advised to upgrade the working group to an intergroup."

Recommendations for Iraq:

After relative calm for some years, Iraq is experiencing a new peak of violence along sectarian lines. Although people from every ethnic or religious background are bein made victim, smaller religious minority groups are particularly vulnerable. Despite this volatility the EU and IRAQ have signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The EU must now make sure that the Human Rights provisions in this Agreement don't become a dead letter. 

The 2013 annual report can be viewed here: http://www.religiousfreedom.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/EPWG-2013-Report-Final-for-printing.pdf