Showing posts with label Human rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human rights. Show all posts

Monday 15 July 2013

Lack of religious freedom South Sudan

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is calling attention to the statelessness of people of South Sudanese origin who are living in Sudan amid human rights abuses, including a lack of religious freedom.
map from CIA World Factbook, converted from or...
map from CIA World Factbook, converted from original format (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sudan has implemented sharia Islamic law, which harshly impacts Christian Southerners.

USCIRF is calling on the U.S. government and its allies to "increase their efforts to help Sudan and South Sudan resolve the status of their nationals residing in the other's territory."

USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett said in a news release July 9:
"It is a potential recipe for disaster that after more than two years of discussions, half a million Southerners in Sudan remain stateless and vulnerable to severe religious freedom violations." 
"Southerners in Sudan are at a particularly grave risk," Lantos Swett said. "Furthermore, failure to finalize negotiations has left them vulnerable to expulsion."
About 1.5 million South Sudanese have returned to their homeland, but others have chosen to remain in Sudan because they are married to a Sudanese individual, have integrated into the country economically or were born during the war and have grown up in the north.
Train in South Sudan
Train in South Sudan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Still others have not returned because South Sudan, as a new nation, is unable to absorb everyone who would return by providing them with resources and services such as education and health care.

In some cases, the Sudanese government has shut down the main passageway between the north and south, Lynch said, preventing would-be returnees from accessing South Sudan. 

Click here to read more.

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Saturday 25 May 2013

Helping against or causing more homophobia

Everywhere in the world we see that there is a growing trend of verbal/physical abuse and life threatening violence by friends, family members, teachers, mobs and in worst case by the law enforcement officers from time to time to people who do not fall into the mainstream or to those who are considered 'queer'.

Can you believe in the fact that organisations could make a difference? Is it possible that the physical, spiritual, social and economic well-being of communities can be greatly influenced to the good by effectively mobilizing religious societies to collaborate for change?

The Interfaith Consortium in partnership with United for Life Ethiopia, the local Pro-life, western Conservative Evangelicals ally organized two national anti-homosexuality conferences and pass a joint statement to plea the government to further restrict the practice of homosexuality in December, 2008 at UN Convention Center and June, 2012 at the newly built African Union headquarter in Addis Ababa.

According to the corrupted and politicized Interfaith Consortium is unfortunately, doing nothing and remains silent in several pressing issues of the country; when the government was repeatedly and openly criticized by international human rights and press organizations as well as by some government officials from the European Community and United States for its abuse of freedom of the press and civic association and human rights since the introduction of  the restrictive charities and societies, press and anti-terrorism laws.

Read more about it: Is the Ethiopian Interfaith Forum for Development or for Homophobia??? and the Support from The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR/Emergency Plan) ???


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