Freedom of worship is “threatened in nearly one in three countries” in the world, says the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a report published Thursday which notes, for two years, a “strong degradation” within most of these countries.
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“We count 61 countries in which citizens have faced serious violations of religious freedom,” writes the ACN, which listed 62 in its previous report.
Since the last report, the internal situation has deteriorated in 47 countries and improved in only 9, according to the EDA.
An international foundation of pontifical right, the ACN examines every two years the situation of all the religious denominations of 196 countries. For the 16th edition of her report, which covers the period from May 2021 to December 2022, she worked with around 30 academics, missionaries, human rights activists and journalists.
Over the past two years, it has counted “persecutions” (assassinations, deportations, exiles, conversions and forced marriages, expropriations) in 28 countries (51.6% of the world’s population), compared to 26 in 2021. “Of these 28 countries , 13 are in Africa, where in many regions the situation has deteriorated sharply”. China and India are also “among the worst offenders of religious freedom”.
In addition, “discrimination” (refusal or limitation of access to employment, emergency aid, justice, real estate) has been committed in 33 other countries (36 in 2021), according to AED. “The situation has deteriorated in 13 of these countries.”
Religious freedom is attacked either by “authoritarian governments”, or by “Islamist extremism”, or by “ethno-religious nationalism”, lists this organization.
According to her, “a combination of terrorist attacks, destruction of heritage and religious symbols (Turkey, Syria), manipulation of the electoral system (Nigeria, Iraq), mass surveillance (China), proliferation of anti- conversion and financial restrictions (South East Asia and the Middle East) has increased the oppression of all faith communities”.
The NGO notes an “increased persecution of Muslims, including by other Muslims”, in particular “between Sunnis and Shiites”, noting in particular the situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan.
She also notes that “reported attacks against the Jewish community in the West have increased after the confinements linked to Covid-19. Reported anti-Semitic hate crimes in OSCE countries increased from 582 in 2019 to 1,367 in 2021”. These figures come from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, she told AFP.