It would be tragic for us all

During the winter session that closed in Strasbourg on January 28, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a recommendation on Violence against Christians in the Middle East (with 125 ayes, 9 noes and 13 abstentions). The Recommendation, based on a report by MEP Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP Group president) calls for a Council of Europe “strategy” for the enforcement of freedom of religion as a matter of “urgency”. “Notably, it asks that all 47 Member States take account of the religious freedom and of the fundamental rights of Christian and other religious communities in their bilateral and multilateral political dialogue with Middle Eastern Countries”.Christians risk disappearing. “If the problems related to low birth rates and migration, which in some places is fuelled by discrimination and persecution, are not properly addressed – warns the Assembly – it could lead to the disappearance of Christian communities from the Middle East, the region where Christianity had its beginnings”. The recommendation condemns in unequivocal terms the massacre of worshippers in the Syriac Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad October last and the suicide bombing in a Coptic church in Alexandria in January 2011: “two recent events” that were “particularly tragic” while “the number of attacks on Christian communities rose worldwide”. “Some 200 million persons are persecuted simply because of their faith”, points out Volonté, while “75% of the victims of religious violence throughout the world are Christians. According to MEPs. The co-existence of religious groups “is a sign of pluralism” and of an environment “favourable to the development of democracy and human rights”. For this reason “The disappearance of Christian communities in the Middle East would also endanger Islam as it would signal the victory of fundamentalism”. The urgent need for a strategy. Relations between Christian communities in the Middle East and the Muslim majorities “have not always been easy”, PACE points out, underlining that public authorities in some Muslim countries “have not always conveyed the right signals” about religious communities existing in their respective countries. The Recommendation, as a matter of “urgency”, calls for a Council of Europe strategy for the enforcement of freedom of religion (including the freedom to change one’s religion) as a human right”. The document calls on all 47 Member States to adopt “pedagogic tools” to combat antichristian bias and stereotyping”, as well as “Christianophobia” in general, and promote interreligious dialogue. The Assembly equally calls on Member States to ensure that a “democracy clause” is included in the agreements between them and third countries, to take account of the situation of Christian and other religious communities in their bilateral political dialogue with the countries concerned. Finally, it invites CoE Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg and the general Direction of Human Rights to monitor the situation and keep PACE informed. Balkans and Belarus. In another resolution adopted with unanimous vote, MEPs call on the countries of former Yugoslavia “to double their efforts” in order to achieve “full reconciliation”, address “the priority issue of disappeared people”, ensure support to the returning refugees and grant full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribune for the former Yugoslavia. In addition to the Marty Report on the atrocities committed in Kosovo and Albania with human organ trafficking at the end of the 1990s that led to the adoption of a specific resolution endorsed with ample majority vote (cf. SIR Europe n.07 – 2011), MEPs examined the Report on “Witness Protection, a milestone for justice and reconciliation in the Balkans”, presented by Jean-Charles Gardetto (Munich) which denounced insufficient protection of witnesses. “In Croatia the names of ‘witnesses’ under protection are disclosed. In Bosnia-Herzegovina they are threatened and intimidated; in Kosovo they are frequently killed”. For this reason, “potential witnesses refuse disclosing information”. The resolution thus calls for the “full protection” of witnesses”. Moreover, the Assembly invites Bosnia-Herzegovina “to undertake urgent measures” such as “key reforms, which include constitutional reforms”, and to “step up the performance of its democratic institutions”. The Assembly thus conveyed its “dismay” for the “unprecedented violence” that followed the announcement of the outcomes of the presidential election in Belarus in December 2010 and exhorted Belarus authorities “to immediately release all opposition candidates, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons”.