PRESSURE is mounting on the Government to appoint a Special Envoy to advertise Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). A Private Member’s Bill is resulting from be debated on Friday.
The Bill, introduced by Jim Shannon MP (Democratic Union Party), would, if passed, require the Government to proceed making this appointment. It is currently scheduled to be debated after the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill from the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, so could also be postponed.
Mr Shannon’s FoRB Bill has received support from the previous Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has suggested that the problem of spiritual freedom “doesn’t appear to be particularly vital to the brand new Labour government”.
He told the Church Times this week that he was “nervous” that the Government was “deprioritising this issue, perhaps since it just isn’t seen as politically correct to arise for Christians”.
The UK, he said, by giving state aid, without challenge, to regimes with a poor FoRB record, risked leaving individuals who were persecuted for his or her faith vulnerable. “These aren’t wealthy white minorities but a few of the poorest indigenous populations, who’re being hounded for his or her beliefs by regimes who accept numerous aid from the UK. If we wish to do something about it, we are able to,” he said.
Mr Hunt, an Anglican, championed religious freedom when he was Foreign Secretary, commissioning, in 2018, an independent review of the persecution of Christians all over the world. Earlier that 12 months, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, had appointed a Foreign Office minister, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, an Ahmadi Muslim, as the primary Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB.
The creator of the review, published in 2021 (News, 5 November 2021), was the then Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, now Bishop of Winchester. He told the Church Times this week that the Government’s rhetoric on appointing someone to champion the problem was “wearing increasingly thin”.
He voiced concern that, without the appointment of a Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB, “the UK will lose the leading role internationally it has gained in recent times,” and “could be failing in its moral duty to arise for a few of the most vulnerable communities — of all faiths — worldwide.
“The Government’s much-repeated mantra that the FoRB special envoy role shall be announced ‘in the end’ is wearing increasingly thin. It is now urgent, and I’ll proceed to take every opportunity to boost this within the House of Lords.”
His review had found that, of all persecuted minorities globally, Christians were probably the most targeted faith group. It also found that the UK Government had been “more reluctant” to focus on the persecution of Christians if other interests were involved. The charity Open Doors estimates that about 365 million Christians experience persecution or discrimination for his or her faith.
Writing on the web site CapX on Red Wednesday, last week — a day designated by Aid to the Church in Need to focus on religious persecution — Mr Hunt said that, because the publication of the review, the UK had used its positions on the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and within the G7 to advocate for FoRB. It had also, he said, co-founded the International Religion and Belief Alliance, which now had 38 members. The special envoy, Mr Hunt argued, was “a vital driver” behind these achievements.
“The undeniable fact that the federal government has still not appointed a recent Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) is a explanation for great concern,” he wrote. “Sadly, religious freedom doesn’t appear to be particularly vital to the brand new Labour government.”
Given that religious freedom was a right enshrined within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he wrote: “I’d have expected Keir Starmer — as a human-rights lawyer with experience in Northern Ireland — to have made FoRB a serious foreign-policy priority.”
David Burrowes, a former deputy special envoy for FoRB, echoed this. “It could be a terrific shame if the Government’s commemoration of the forthcoming Human Rights Day [10 December], when international human-rights advocates will come together on the FCDO, is marred by the continued delay in appointing a Special Envoy for FoRB.”
A government spokesperson said on Wednesday that the UK “champions, and stays strongly committed to, Freedom of Religion or Belief for all abroad. No one should live in fear due to what they do or don’t imagine in.
“Envoy appointments are under Ministerial consideration and shall be decided upon in the end. We will proceed to make use of the strength of our global diplomatic network and our position on the UN, G7, other forums to advertise and protect Freedom of Religion or Belief all over the world.”
