[Peace News] Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements Seminar in Seoul

[Peace News]

[Peace News] Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements Seminar in Seoul

More than 80 people including legal experts, journalists, scholars and representatives from civil society  participated in a seminar on human rights under the title "Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements: An International Problem" on 29th November in Seoul, Korea, hosted by Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) from Italy and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) from Belgium.

The coercive conversion program (forced conversion), which is also known as "Deprogramming", has become a social and global epidemic that violates human rights through kidnap, violence, detainment and threats in order to make people renounce their religious beliefs.

Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of CESNUR and a prominent Italian sociologist, criticized the human rights situation in Korea, saying:

"Korean deprogrammers are specialized pastors from the mainland churches, most of them Presbyterian. The protests that commemorate the victims from forced conversion were mentioned in the 2019 U.S. State Department Report on Religious Freedom, including violations of religious freedom in the year 2018. However, there were new cases of deprogramming even after their death."

Willy Fautré, Founder and Director of HRWF suggested two countermeasures as he pointed out the problem in the Presbyterian Church in Korea that tolerates, endorses and even encourages coercive conversion programs (Deprogramming):

1. Developing advocacy at the UN and within organizations to defend the freedom of one's religion or belief

2. Prosecuting those who encourage others to commit acts of abduction or confinement

Given that South Korea is now the only democratic country in the world where the coercive conversion program is still being carried out, it is imperative that more seminars and forums raising human rights issues on freedom of religion and belief are held.


Peace!

[Peace News] Experts of the World Warn Democratic Countries to Tackle Violence against Minorities

[Peace News]

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October 25th of 2019, Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) in Belgium and the Center for Studies on New Religions (CENSNUR) in Italy co-hosted "Intolerance and discrimination against new religious movements: an international problem" to discuss international human rights issues with 40 legal experts, journalists and representatives of civil society organizations.

All participating experts addressed and discussed the issue of 'coercive conversion' and deprogramming that has caused severe human rights violations on religious minority groups in China, Japan, Russia, United States and South Korea.

South Korea has remained silent on the issue of these coercive conversion programs, which have resulted in the murder of two innocent people, acute family breakdowns and mental trauma for more than 1,200 Korean citizens committed by the Christian Council of Korea. It is, therefore, a significant event that was hosted in Korea. All legal experts agreed that the South Korean government must begin investigations and take measures against coercive conversion programs carried out by the Christian Council of Korea.

I hope that all world states will someday entirely resolve all human rights issues and guarantee religious freedoms for all :)

Peace!

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