Clinton Calls on Global Community to Promote Religious Tolerance
By MacKenzie C. Babb
Staff Writer
Washington - Protecting religious freedom in countries around the world
promotes peace, stability and security for the international community and
remains a fundamental concern of the United States, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton said at the rollout of the State Department's 14th annual
International Religious Freedom Report.
"Religious freedom is both an essential element of human dignity and of
secure, thriving societies," Clinton said July 30 at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in Washington. "It's been statistically linked with economic
development and democratic stability, and it creates a climate in which people
from different religions can move beyond distrust and work together to solve
their shared problems."
Clinton said President Obama's administration has elevated religious
freedom as a diplomatic priority.
"Together with governments, international organizations and civil society,
we have worked to shape and implement United Nations Human Rights Council
Resolution 1618, which seeks to protect people under attack or discriminated
against because of their faith," the secretary said.
She called on countries around the world to join in a global effort to
promote religious tolerance and protect religious freedom, saying that
governments "have solemn obligations to protect the human rights of all
citizens, no matter what religions they believe or don't believe."
Clinton said the State Department's latest report comes as an urgent
reminder that religious freedom is shrinking around the world.
"More than a billion people live under governments that systematically
suppress religious freedom," she said. "When it comes to this human right ...
the world is sliding backwards."
U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Suzan Johnson
Cook introduced the report, which reviews the status of religious freedom in 199
countries and territories, earlier in the day at the State Department.
She said the document "details increasing intolerance against a range of
religious communities," such as a rise in anti-Semitism in several countries,
demonstrated by increased attacks on adults and children as well as the
desecration of cemeteries.
Other troubling trends during the year included a number of governments
detaining and imprisoning individuals because of their religious beliefs. Some
countries used blasphemy and apostasy laws to curb religious freedom, Cook said,
and others misused laws to restrict the freedoms of religion, expression and
assembly.
Cook said governments limited citizens' right to wear or not to wear
religious attire, as some countries passed laws to ban attire covering the face
while others forced women to cover themselves entirely.
She said many governments used registration laws to restrict the rights of
religious communities, including rigid rules making it impossible for groups to
own property or to receive state financial support.
"This type of favoritism by governments can empower societal abuse of
religious minorities," the ambassador said.
She said the report shows that while the challenges of religious
intolerance are daunting, change is possible.
"It takes all of us - governments, faith communities, civil societies -
working together to ensure that all people have the right to believe or not to
believe," Cook said. "Each of us has a role to play in promoting religious
freedom."
The ambassador celebrated the State Department's launch of the 2012 Hours
Against Hate campaign, which aims to promote respect regardless of religion,
culture, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
The department's latest religious freedom report said the campaign calls
upon young people "to volunteer their time to assist persons from other
communities - a Jew for a Muslim charity, a man for a women's shelter, a Muslim
for a Jewish clinic, a Christian for a Baha'i food pantry." It added that the
campaign generated so much interest and so many hours of volunteer time that it
has now been endorsed as one of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games
Organizing Committee's tolerance campaigns for the 2012 Summer Olympic
Games.
The annual report calls attention to steps taken to improve religious
freedom and promote tolerance while also shining a spotlight on violations of
religious freedom.
The document is submitted each year to Congress in compliance with the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The latest edition catalogs major
developments in religious freedom and tolerance around the world from January to
December 2011.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State.)
