In September, between 5 to 7 September took place” The International Conference of CESNUR 2019” in Turin, Italy, at the Luigi Einaudi Campus of the University of Turin.

The subject of this year CESNUR conference was:  “RE-ENCHANTING THE WORLD:
SPIRITUALITIES AND RELIGIONS OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM”.

Soteria International’s representative was the chairperson of session 31 of the CESNUR Conference 2019.

We can say that there are several scholars and human rights organizations interested in studying such subjects and problems in the society.

One of them, which is an international network of scholars who study new religious movements is CESNUR, which has as founder and managing director Prof Massimo Introvigne.

The CESNUR, Center for Studies on New Religions , is the largest Research and Information Center on the modern and contemporary religious phenomenon of Europe, which has also created an Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy updated online daily, and promoter of the Journal of CESNUR , magazine in-depth academic studies on minority religions and spirituality issues.

Forced Conversion in South Korea Should Be Put to an End: An Open Letter to President Moon Jae-in

한국의 강제 개종은 끝나야 한다 : 문재인 대통령에게 보내는 공개 서신

Dear President Moon:

존경하는 문재인 대통령님:

We represent international NGOs and scholarly organizations specialized in researching religious pluralism and new religious movements throughout the world, and advocating for religious liberty.

우리는 전 세계에 걸쳐 종교 다원주의와 새로운 종교 운동을 연구하고 종교 자유를 옹호하는 국제 NGO와 학술 단체를 대표합니다.

South Korea is a democratic country in an area where several totalitarian regimes persecute believers of all religions. We commend your government’s efforts to speak out for human rights and religious liberty in Eastern Asia.

한국은 몇몇 전체주의 정권이 모든 종교인을 박해하는 지역에 있는 민주주의 국가입니다. 우리는 동아시아에서 인권과 종교 자유를 옹호하는 한국 정부의 노력을 높이 평가합니다.

A California family is taking their fight to the Chinese government after they say their loved one was tortured and killed inside of a Chinese labor camp nearly 20 years ago, simply for supporting the spiritual meditation practice known as Falun Gong. Now, never before seen undercover video given to FOX 11 is revealing what life is like for political prisoners inside of those Chinese labor camps. 
In 1999, the Chinese government ordered the eradication Falun Gong, calling it a “heretical” organization that threatened social stability. 

The communist government began arresting and imprisoning hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners, and shipped them to labor camps where they were to be “re-educated”.

On Monday April 1, 2019 at 11am Press Club Brussels Europe the "Faith and Freedom Summit "will keep a Press Conference, where the core points will be:

* What is the Faith and Freedom Summit and why?

* Who signed the Faith and Freedom Summit pledge?

see the pleadge at : https://faithandfreedomsummit.eu/

* How does faith and freedom relate to the EU elections?

* How freedom of religion or belief relates to security issues across the world, and particularly in Europe?

* What are the next moves and initiatives of the Faith and Freedom Summit and how will it impact EU institutions?

The speakers at the Press conference are:

Lea Perekrests Deputy Director - Human Rights Without Frontiers International

Bashy Quraichy Secretary General - EMISCO (European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion) Chair-Advisory Council-ENAR

Martin Weightman Director - All Faiths Network

Massimo Introvigne Editor-in-Chief - Bitter Winter Director - CESNUR, Center for the Study of New Religions

Ivan Arjona Pelado President - European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights

Richard Milsom Chief Executive - ACRE, Alliance of Conservative and Reformists in Europe

Christine Mirre Deputy Director - CAP Freedom of Conscience

Inquiries: contact@faithandfreedomsummit.eu  www.faithandfreedomsummit.eu

Soteria International together with a larger network of NGOs stand behind Faith & Freedom Summit II, that takes place next tuesday 2nd of April in the European Parliament.

We mean that freedom of conscience and religion must be secured at all levels of the EU, where it does not always enjoy the respect and attention it does deserve as a fundamental right.

The summit invites those who actively want to take a stand for everyone's right to live in line with their heart, faith and conscience. It is also a call for action: practicing what we preach in Europe!

Faith & Freedom Summit II has written a pledge, which is supported by FNs special rappourteur on freedom of religion and belief Ahmed Shaheed, that anyone has the oppertunity to sign as a mark of one's support for the complaince of our fundamental rights.

"I pledge that I will uphold and defend the freedom of conscience and religion of all individuals by rejecting and speaking out against bigotry, discrimination, harassment and violence; and so build a more equitable society for all."
Read more at:

https://faithandfreedomsummit.eu/faith-and-freedom-summit-ii

In line with the ongoing project “Right to Truth” announced last 4 February in Florence at the end of presentation event for the book of proceedings of the FOB convention, Paris Human Right Attorney Patricia Duval, member of FON Scientific Committee, wrote the following article for the prestigious magazine Coscienza e Libertà. In such article she stigmatizes the work of some organizations, existing throughout Europe, in manufacturing fake news that instigate campaigns of hatred and religious intolerance. Patricia Duval has been one of the spealers at the 18-19 January 2018 convention “Law and Freedom of Belief in Europe, an Arduous Journey”, during she did a speech titled “State neutrality and anti-sect movements: the France case”.

At the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, together with several other NGOs and officials, we participated at the United Nations, Geneva, at the conference "A civil society commitment".
Some of us questioned during the past years why Freedom of Religion and Belief needs special protection, apart from freedom of speech, opinion, assembly etc. The question seems to find support in the vague and culturally biased understanding of what religion or belief is, especially when it comes to new religious movements.
The entire conference was a source of inspiration and opening up to a new level of networking in the field of human rights.
Here we present Soteria's International contribution, video and text.

On 10 December 2018, we celebrated the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the Palace of Nations of the United Nations in Geneva.

The Conference was organized by CAP Liberté de Conscience* and Fundacion VIDA* with the support of the:

-Permanent Representation of Estonia,

-Permanent Mission of Finland in Geneva,

–Republic of Philippines Permanent Mission to the United Nations Geneva,

-Permanent Mission of the Slovak Republic to the United Nations Office,

There were more than 120 attendees including 20 Representatives of Permanent Missions at the U.N. and 25 speakers/moderators.

The general theme was: A Commitment from Civil Society.

12/27/2018 Lin Yijiang

Accused of espionage and subversion, at least 45 contributors were arrested and interrogated; the reporter who filmed a secret camp in Xinjiang “disappeared” after the arrest.

In August 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities designated Bitter Winter a “foreign hostile website” for publishing secret documents and news reports about the CCP’s suppression of religious beliefs and human rights violations. The authorities have retaliated by launching repeated attempts to hack the website, and by targeting reporters and contributors.

Since August, at least 45 Bitter Winter contributors in mainland China have been arrested for filming incidents of, or gathering news about, the CCP’s persecution of religious freedom and violation of human rights. Reporters are usually detained and interrogated on the charge of “divulging state secrets” or “involvement in infiltration by foreign forces.” Some reporters have been sent to “legal education centers” to undergo mandatory indoctrination, while others have been tortured and abused.

We welcome all online participants to join as online video conference on the platform Zoom (https://zoom.us/). Zoom works very well for sharing video. If you are not yet familiar with this platform you can download the app to computer or mobile device. To create an account is for free.

You can join on https://zoom.us/j/958901246, or log onto zoom and enter Meeting ID: ‎958 901 246

We will open the official video zoom conference at 13.45, and urge you to join us in good time before we start at 14.00:) 

Thank you for joining us!

Saturday, 8th December, Soteria International offers the 2018 Spiritual Human Rights conference to review the UDHR from a spiritual perspective.

The UDHR has inspired judicial frameworks and international law. The UDHR has also come to serve as a standard framework, as to what society should provide and state secure for the individual.

The Spiritual Human Rights 2018 conference offers speakers and participants to reflect and review the full potential of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as to comment on its content.

Place: Verdens Kultur Centret, Copenhagen

Time: 14.00 – 16.00

Date: 8 December 2018, Saturday

The conference is also offered as an online WEBINAR – you find the connecting link on our site soteriainternational.org and Facebook – Soteria Int’l.

Welcome to the Spiritual Human Rights conference 2018!

On December 10th we will be celebrating at the UN Geneva the 70th Anniversary of the UDHR and look for people willing to come, who were born on 10th December 1948.
Please contact us at info@humanrights70.eu

URGENT PETITION

For the Attention of the President of the People’s Republic of China

For information, to:

Secretary General of the United Nations
United Nations Committee for Human Rights
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
President of the European Commission
President of the United States of America
President of the Community of Independent States
President of the Russian Federation
President of the Republic of Italy
President of the Republic of France
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

For the respect of all religions and for the protection of freedom of belief in the People’s Republic of China

[ To go directly to the petition form click here ]

President Xi Jinping,

we are addressing You, as the guide for the widest and most populous country on earth.

We are a group of NGOs that have been working for years to protect freedom of belief, a fundamental human right granted by a number of norms of international laws, first and foremost article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and also by article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China of 1982 as well as by article 53 of the Common Program of 1949.

Chinese people’s freedom to practice religions they believe in, is consistently challenged and trampled on.

Indo-Canadian engineer retired, Neelam Makhija, 71, spends two months in prison and is held against his will in France for two and a half years. His crime, being a friend of a coach who hosted, once a year, meditation seminars! Despite his acknowledged innocence before the court, he cannot obtain compensation (financial, moral) for the damages suffered.

On 10/09/18, by Jean-Luc Martin-Lagardette

Neelam Makhija, 71, shares his life between Mumbai (India) and Toronto (Canada). Of Indian origin, he is also a Canadian citizen. An engineer in third cycle electronics (MSEE) and holder of a master of business administration (MBA), he founded and directed for 23 years in Canada a company specialized in high-tech electronic projects. Retired since 2006, he spends his time between Canada and India where his two daughters and grand-children live.

SOTERIA INTERNATIONAL contribution to OSCE - HDIM 2018 - WORKING SESSION 7:
Fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief
13th September 2018:

HOW UNIVERSAL IS THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS TODAY?

Recommendations:
•    Soteria International recommends ODIHR and the OSCE member states to explore how to guarantee the universality of human rights as universal principles, rather than cultural expressions.

•    Soteria International recommends ODIHR and the OSCE member states to explore how religion and spiritual systems from a universal perspective may provide answers to fundamental human needs and tools for developing human potentials.

•    Soteria International recommends the OSCE member states to the educational system to play a major role in reintegrating religion and belief as a constructive part of our lives. By integrating and understanding religions and belief systems by their universal principles, we overpass the differences between cultures, traditions and religions.

At the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights we would like to ask: How Universal is The Universal Declaration of Human Rights today?
Especially when it comes to Freedom of Religion and Belief we find great confusion, where even in the heart of Europe we find that what would pass as civil service in a secular frame (such as coaching your child's football team), when practiced in a religious context (offering one’s service as karma yoga) can be tried as a criminal offence (human trafficking).

SOTERIA INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTION TO OSCE HDIM 2018

WORKING SESSION 5- RULE OF LAW

12 September 2018

Today, rule of law is challenged not only from arbitrary application of the law within certain OSCE member states, but increasingly by how the tools regulating the interaction between different national judicial systems lacks a precision to hinder abuses and misinterpretations. Thus, the very tools for securing the rule of law open a risk for its corruption.

Recommendations:

1-       Soteria International recommends the ODHIR and all OSCE member states to embrace an investigation into stopping cultural bias to influence the application of tools of international judicial collaboration.

2-       Soteria International recommends international bodies and all OSCE member states to scrutinize the frameworks regulating international judicial collaboration in general, and especially with regards to the European Arrest Warrant, in order to prevent human rights infringements in the margins between one national judicial system and another.

We live in world of increasing international collaboration. In trade, science and art, international collaboration is carried by its own mechanisms, some cultures being inter alias more compatible than others. The tools of judiciary international collaboration do not have the privilege of letting an organic process develop, but is regulated by imposed regulations. The bluntness of these regulations seem to open for abuses and misinterpretations, intentional or not.

Soteria International & Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience (CAP) invite you to our upcoming conference, hosted at the OSCE HDIM 2018:

How Universal is “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights”?

Globalization underline that the UDHR is often applied relative to regional culture, rather than securing universal principles. Especially when it comes to Freedom of Thought, Religion or Belief we find how cultural bias influence policy and law-making. What one considers a religious practice - such as devotional work in monastery - others consider criminality - in this case human trafficking.

Often it passes as a non-regrettable consequence of natural differences between one culture and another. Still, what may pass as normal when it comes to cultural norms, must still be questioned when presented within the framework of human rights, claiming to be universal.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is based on converging and finding common ground between different cultures. However well accomplished, Mrs Roosevelt's project never sought a base for Universality other than an estimation from a fixed position in time and space.

CAP, Church of Scietology, EMISCO, FOB, FOREF will be together with Soteria International in debating the Universality of UDHR.

Heavily persecuted in China, with many documented cases of torture and extra-judicial killings, hundreds of members of The Church of Almighty God have escaped to South Korea, where they are seeking refugee status. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pursuing them also in Korea. It has coerced or persuaded with threats their relatives to go to Korea and ask that the refugees “return home,” i.e. go back to China where they would not go “home” but to jail, and is staging false “spontaneous demonstrations” with the help of local organizations against the “cults.”

Together with several others NGO, Soteria International addressed a common letter to Italian Minister of Economy, Mr. Giovanni Tria. He is currently visiting China and we hope that the disscussion to reach also to the freedom of belief and religious liberty.

Here is the letter:

"Dear Mr. Tria:

We wish you a fruitful visit to China on behalf of Italian economic interests.

Last July, Italy was an official participant in the Washington D.C. “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom”. There, 82 countries solemnly agreed that religious liberty should be regarded as a non-negotiable cornerstone of international relations.

We hope that the good economic relationships between China and Italy may help you in raising with your Chinese counterparts the matter of the gross violations of religious liberty in China, which became even worse with the new laws on religion that came into force in 2018.

The Board of Immigration Appeals granted on August 13 a stay of removal to the leader of The Church of Almighty God in four Chinese provinces, who was to be deported to China after August 15.

We are now pleased to report that the application for stay has been granted.

The Board will now examine the substance of the matter, and the legal battle is far from being over, but the immediate risk of repatriation to China – where Sister Zou would be arrested and may be executed – has been averted.