Essay: State Department blacklists are only one tool to foster international religious freedom
KNOX THAMES, US State Department special adviser on religious minorities in the Obama and Trump administrations, looks, in an article first published on Religion News Service, at whether such designations help…
Analysis – Truce in Ethiopia’s Tigray war just first step on long road to peace
Reuters Implementing the ceasefire agreed by the Ethiopian Government and forces from the northern region of Tigray will be fraught with difficulties, while thorny political and territorial disputes will need to be tackled to achieve lasting peace. Two years of war between Ethiopia’s federal army and Tigray forces have killed thousands of people, displaced millions […]
First peace talks on Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict to start in South Africa
Pretoria, South AfricaReuters Negotiators for the Ethiopian Government and regional forces from Tigray were due to meet in the South African capital Pretoria for the first formal peace talks since war broke out two years ago. The talks come after the Ethiopian military and their allies, who include troops from neighbouring Eritrea, captured several large […]
Ethiopian army captures city from Tigray forces – sources
Nairobi, KenyaReuters Ethiopian Government forces and their allies on Monday captured Shire, one of the biggest cities in the northern region of Tigray, from regional forces they have been battling on and off since late 2020, two diplomatic and humanitarian sources said. The violence in Tigray, which has spilled over into neighbouring regions and drawn […]
Essay: Eritrea continues to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community
ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says the world must continue standing up and speaking out until Eritrea and all of its people are free…
List Afghanistan as religious liberty violator, report urges US State Department
United StatesRNS The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that Afghanistan be added to the State Department’s list of worst religious freedom violators, citing the changes that resulted when the Taliban took control of the country last year. The federal panel said in its annual report released on Monday that the regime change has […]
UN General Assembly in historic vote denounces Russia over Ukraine invasion
United NationsReuters The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia for invading Ukraine and demanded that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces, an action that aims to diplomatically isolate Russia at the world body. The resolution, supported by 141 of the assembly’s 193 members, passed in a rare emergency session […]
Essay: The death of Eritrean Patriarch Abune Antonios should be a call to action
ELLIS HEASLEY and Dr KHATAZA GONDWE, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, reflect on the life of Eritrean Patriarch Abune Antonios and why honouring his “unwavering stand for human rights and freedom of religion or belief” means calling out ongoing abuses…
Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch dies after 16 years in detention
Nairobi, Kenya RNS Abune Antonios, a confined Eritrean Orthodox Church Patriarch and the longest-serving prisoner of conscience in the Horn of Africa, died on 9th February at the age of 94. He was still serving detention in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, after his arrest in 2006, just two years after his installation as the third […]
Russia added to State Department list of worst religious liberty violators
RNS The US State Department has added Russia to its list of nations it considers among the world’s most egregious violators of religious freedom. Russia joins Myanmar (referred to as Burma on the list), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the list of “countries of particular concern.” Nigeria, which was […]