This October, the Observatory submitted a complaint against Germany to the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. Below you find the list of infringements on human rights with regards to Christianity which we monitor in Germany.
The Oct 2nd seminar, which was organised by different politicial groups together with the COMECE, concluded that Christians in Europe are being more and more sidelined and marginalised, partly by social hostility and partly by government restrictions. Significant efforts are required to eliminate discriminatory actions against Christians. Freedom of religion has to be ensured not only for minorities, but for Christians as well. Public attention must be raised to issues which are not covered by the media and a permanent dialogue should be established on major issues. Likewise, cross-party initiatives must also play a stronger role in this process.
The Pew Research Center finds that United Kingdom, France, Germany, Greece and Romania are among the countries of high and growing social hostility against religion.
Find here the intervention of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on September 26th, 2012, in Warsaw. Topic: Freedom of Assembly of Christians violated West of Vienna.
The US-based Family Research Council and the Liberty Institute published in 2012 a report on "Religious Hostility in America". Read here the executive summary.
The ECtHR hears four cases of religious discrimination of Christians at work against the UK. Read here the press release of the European Center for Law and Justice, including a summary of the four cases.
Since the creation of the under-directory for general information (SDIG - Sous-direction de l’information générale) on 1st July 2008, a periodical state of affairs of attacks on places of worship and tombs in France has been conducted by introducing a constant inventory method. Profanations of places of cult are a classic form of racist and anti-Semitic violence, but the Christian symbols are from far the most targeted, from 82% to 90% of the cases depending of the year.
On June 28, 2012 Italy’s foreign affairs office officially opened an Observatory on Religious Liberty focussing on all countries of the world but Italy. The observatory aims to support Italian international diplomacy with regards to violations against religious liberty.
On 26 - 27 June 2012 the OSCE/ODIHR held a meeting entitled "The Role of Civil Society in Combating Hate Crimes against Christians", hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. The seminar gathered more than 40 civil society organizations dealing with intolerance against Christians in the OSCE area. The aim of the meeting was to raise awareness on the concept of hate crimes and different forms of intolerance, and to train the participants in how to document such crimes. The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians participated.
The European Court of Human Rights published a judgment in the important case of Fernandez-Martínez c. Espagne (application no 56030/07) in which it concluded by six votes to one that “the choice of the bishop not to renew the contract of a teacher who is a married priest and activist of the Pro-Optional Celibacy Movement comes under the principle of religious freedom, as protected by the Convention”.