ICC Note:

Canadian government official David Anderson stated that “with 74% of the world’s population living in countries with high or very high restrictions or hostilities, freedom of religion or belief is an embattled right and the defining issue of our time.” Therefore, over 100 parliamentarians from 60 countries gathered this week to discuss how to protect and promote religious freedom to countries where people are greatly oppressed for their faith. Christians, in particular have seen a rise in persecution not only from their governments, but terrorist groups mentioned a parliamentary group leader for Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany Party. 

09/19/2016 Washington D.C. (The Christian Post) – Over 100 parliamentarians from 60 countries met this week in Berlin for a series of workshops and seminars under the title, “An Embattled Right: Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion of Belief.”

The second conference of this size after last year’s meeting in New York, it was organised by the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB) and hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

IPPFoRB is an informal network of parliamentarians and legislators from around the world committed to combatting religious persecution and advancing freedom of religion or belief, as defined by Article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration for Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

“Make no mistake, with 74% of the world’s population living in countries with high or very high restrictions or hostilities, freedom of religion or belief is an embattled right and the defining issue of our time.”

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