In the spirit of Christmas, Bitter Winter is showing through this article solidarity with the countless voiceless religious minorities who are facing persecution, as a way of ensuring that their stories are told, their dignity defended, and their hope sustained. Read the full article here.

On the 10th of December 2025, on Human Rights day, Soteria International, together with Human Rights Without Frontiers, Gerard Noodt Foundation for Freedom of Religion and Belief, European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion and Universal Peace Federation, hosted a hybrid conference, in Copenhagen and online.

Moderated by Jonathan Selvig Skjalholt on behalf of Soteria International, the conference brought together human rights activists and representatives of civil society organisations to present increasingly pressing challenges to freedom of religion or belief in Europe and beyond. Across different national, religious, and ideological contexts, speakers discovered a common observation: a growing tension between formal human rights commitments and how it is applied by states, institutions, media, and authorities.

Soteria International, in collaboration with:

• Gerard Noodt Foundation for Freedom of Religion or Belief
• Human Rights Without Frontiers - www.hrwf.eu
• Universal Peace Federation - www.upf.org
• and EMISCO - European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion

Invite you to the Annual SPIRITUAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE – 2025:

Date & Time: Wednesday, 10 DECEMBER 2025 from 10.00 – 12.00 CET

Venue: Kulturhuset Union DYNAMO room
Address: Nørre Allé 7
2200 København N Denmark

Or ONLINE through ZOOM:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86941072113?pwd=SSNbVSZt6lavuR1SEyuwM5Pz2qVcDx.1

Meeting ID: 869 4107 2113 Passcode: 207751

Working in the field of freedom of religion and belief, Soteria International comes across cases, worldwide, where the individual belief system or religious practice is restricted by national law and prejudices of society.

By Gabriel ANDREESCU

The study makes an assessment of the repression of some spiritual and religious movements that practice sacred eroticism. I borrowed the term “sacred eroticism” from a book by Massimo Introvigne published in 2022. An important resource for the analysis were the investigations of the Center for the Study on New Religions (CESNUR), among which the contribution of Introvigne and his collaborators stands out. This text capitalizes on the research I have done on the “case” of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) over about two decades. In analyzing and interpreting the repression to which the followers of sacred eroticism were subjected, I consider the political and institutional framework of the events, but the emphasis was placed on the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by national legislation and international human rights law. The study evolves from a presentation of the attacks against communities practicing sacred eroticism in Romania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Argentina, France, to the doctrinal arguments that highlight the denial of the rights of discerning adults, the discrimination and the cruel actions to which the followers of sacred eroticism have been subjected. 

Read more here

By Rosita Šorytė
European Federation for Freedom of Belief

ABSTRACT: Since the 19th century, there has been a public eager to read exposés of unpopular religious or esoteric minorities claiming they were engaged in illicit sex. Roman Catholics, Mormons, and Freemasons were among those targeted. This trend continues in contemporary media. It would seem that in sacred eroticism groups, which do not hide that they teach erotic rituals, there is less room for new and sensational revelations by the media. Nonetheless, based on the accounts of hostile ex-members (“apostates”), the media have produced accounts claiming that sacred eroticism is just a pretext for sexualabuse. While abuses are possible, the media treatment of these groups is biased and unilateral. The article examines cases where two sacred eroticism groups (whose leaders were jailed) were targeted, the Guru Jára Path and the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA).

Read more here

By Massimo Introvigne
CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions)

ABSTRACT: Based on the author’s experience as an expert witness in court cases and previous research, the article discusses the problems of studying and giving opinions on incidents where individuals or movements are accused of sex abuse within a ritualized context. Some accusations refer to imaginary or hypothetical abuses. In the case of spiritual movements teaching and practicing sacred eroticism, some ex-members reconstruct their experiences, often ex post facto, as abuses. Their voices should not be ignored. However, the view that no reasonable person would accept to participate in erotic rituals or submit to erotic initiations by a spiritual master unless she has been “brainwashed” derives from a general bias against new religious movements and misunderstandings about sacred eroticism.

Read more here

Article by Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers

HRWF (08.08.2025) – On August 1-3, 2025, the HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership (HJI) convened its 3rd International Conference in New York on the theme of “The Root Causes of Contemporary Threats to Freedom of Religion.” 

On that occasion, HRWF presented a paper titled “The role of the media in the stigmatization of and hostility against some religious or belief minorities.”

Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the individual right to freedom of religion or belief, to practice it either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest one’s religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

The wording is very similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and so are other international instruments protecting freedom of religion or belief.

By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers

On 30 June, Donatien Le Vaillant, the head of the MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combating Cultic Abuses) since 31 January 2023 “left” his duties, according to an official statement. This Deputy Inspector General of Justice officially “wanted” to return to his senior position at the General Inspectorate of Administration. However, according to the French weekly Marianne, his departure was not voluntary but rather an ouster, following a disagreement between Donatien Le Vaillant and his superiors over the development of the structure he headed. It could be a resignation.

At the end of May 2025, the Minister of the Interior (Bruno Retailleau), with the agreement of the Prime Minister (currently François Bayrou) and the President of the French Republic (Emmanuel Macron), asked Étienne Apaire, President of MIVILUDES, to merge MIVILUDES with another state agency—the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR)—and reduce its status to one of its departments. This did not please the head of the MIVILUDES, Donatien Le Vaillant, who preferred to return to his original position. The status of the MVILUDES within the architecture of state institutions and of supervisory political authorities has, since its creation by a decree of President Jacques Chirac on 28 November 2002, been the subject of diverse ambitions. To understand its full scope, it is necessary to briefly review some basic factual information.

The interdisciplinary conference organized by Exeter Law School, Dr. Vadim Atnash, MEJORA Foundation, and the Human Rights & Democracy Forum brought together scholars, religious leaders, and NGOs to discuss major challenges in religious freedom.

They examined government restrictions and discrimination, highlighting troubling examples: Norway deregisters peaceful religious organizations, and France finances anti-religious movements. Despite being in the 21st century, many governments still prosecute nonviolent religious activities of both traditional and non-traditional religious groups. Additionally, some countries enforce laws that prohibit atheism or restrict religious conversion, further limiting freedom of belief.

Social hostilities also remain a serious concern, particularly in Asia and Europe, where religious minorities often face violence and harassment. This ranges from armed conflicts and violent extremism to discrimination over religious attire, severely impacting targeted communities.

The conference also emphasized best practices such as policies promoting integration, equality, judicial protections, and interdisciplinary research to counteract state violence and social hostilities, fostering tolerance and respect for religious rights.

From the recent conference in the Human Rights Conference Limits of Restrictions: Religious Minorities in Europe and Asia – Law School, University of Exeter – 30 April 2025 Camelia Marin presented the following: 

I choose to present an emic view of the freedom of religion and belief problems encountered by members of schools that include, among their teachings, sacred eroticism. Not only do I have a long career as a religious liberty activist through the organization Soteria International, which relentlessly advocates for the rights of many different groups, but I am also a yoga practitioner in one of the different schools that follow the teachings of MISA, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute. This group has encountered several legal problems, as have other movements that include in their teachings sacred eroticism.

I start with a quote from the book Sacred Eroticism, which Massimo Introvigne devoted to MISA in 2022: “The spiritual teachers who proclaimed the virtues of sacred eroticism rarely became popular with the media, police, and prosecutors.”

But who practices “sacred eroticism”? And what is the context of these practices?

Scholars typically include the schools of yoga that practice sacred eroticism under the label “new religious movements.” However, these yoga schools do not regard themselves as “religions,” although they include elements from various religious traditions assembled through a sort of syncretism. Their members come from different faiths, and some are agnostics. Based on my experience and the observation of other similar schools, they are united by standard practices and by “community rules,” such as non-violence, abstention from recreational drugs and alcohol, and helping each other. Perhaps “communities of belief” or “communities of conscience” are better labels than “new religious movements.”