Report: UN Weakness on Religious Freedom Undercuts its Authority on Human Rights

The UN cannot strengthen, promote and protect human rights if it does not prioritise religious freedom, a report published by the Washington-based human rights alliance, ADF International has argued.

The 73-page report, titled “Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response”, claims that “some UN entities, especially special rapporteurs, have highlighted the problems with anti-conversion laws, but other (UN) entities have failed to condemn them”. That particular failure, the report says, is “emblematic of the UN’s overall failure to protect religious freedom”.

ADF, an international alliance of human-rights groups with a focus on religious freedom, also accused the UN of turning a blind eye to laws that “usually give licence” to extremists to persecute minority religious groups.

‘Licence to persecute’

In South and Southeast Asia, an increase in nationalism was one of the main contributors to the growing popularity of anti-conversation laws, according to ADF. Nationalist forces regard conversion from the predominant religion — Islam in Pakistan, and Hindu in India, for example — as a threat to national unity and security.

“To stem this perceived threat, countries … have passed laws banning conversion from one religion to another in vague circumstances such as under ‘inducement’ and in ‘fraudulent…