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Interventions (2003) to the Commission of Human Rights, Geneva, on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Commission on Human Rights
Geneva, 17 March - 25 April 2003

Oral statement by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC.

Point 14: Minorities

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a faith community of some 25 million operating in 205 countries. On behalf of all religious minorities, the Church wishes to raise some specific concerns regarding the treatment of smaller faith groups by governments and majority religious organizations.

The exercise of power and control to limit human rights in general and religious freedom in particular is rightly critiqued by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, in particular Article 18. The rights to freedom of worship, practice and assembly are all guaranteed, as is the right to educate according to faith convictions, and the right to change religion.

However such rights are frequently denied religious minorities, a situation that is frequently compounded by national, ethnic or linguistic discrimination.

Madam President, how is it that states around the world continue to both actively suppress and indirectly discriminate against religious minorities on the basis of their religious beliefs? As signatories, the nations represented here today bear the responsibility to ensure that their assurances given in such matters are upheld so as to ensure the equal and non-discriminatory treatment of religious minorities.

We would cite, for example, the situation in several Central Asian republics where burdensome registration requirements are being implemented that severely impact the freedom of religious minorities to actively practice their faith. One particularly egregious example is that of Turkmenistan, which has adopted an official policy that is hostile to almost all religious minorities, with the destruction of churches and temples, and the harassment and persecution of believers.

Other problems are related to governmental policies that can be seen as directed against religious minorities. The onerous registration requirements that are increasingly being developed, for example in Belarus and other eastern European countries, are clear examples of deliberate discrimination against minority faiths by the state.

Not directly mandated by the state, but still of great concern, are the permitted actions of religious majorities against religious minorities. Here again, states are failing their position as guarantors of safety and security for all their citizens. To have a priest of a majority religion, for example in Georgia, lead an attack on members of religious minorities without arrest or even investigation by the police is an intolerable situation. Such actions—that include beating and harassment of members of minority religions, the burning of places of worship, stigmatism and discrimination in society and employment—demand the outright condemnation of all, especially those charged with providing law and order in these countries.

Worst of all, of course, are those signatories to the Declaration who completely ignore its provisions and allow or even sanction the killing of men, women and children of minority religions. The right to change one’s religion, as clearly enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is denied in practice by majority faiths in many nations who have signed and accepted the provisions of this international declaration. The right to life is surely the fundamental human right, yet this is systematically being denied in far too many countries represented here today.

To kill—or allow the killing—of human beings simply because they are of a different faith is surely the ultimate example of gross human rights violations, and should be repudiated by all here present, since the right to life is upheld by both the Declaration and many other international accords, as well as the doctrine of all major religions.

Madam President, we ask that this body once again categorically and explicitly condemn all violations and instances of discrimination against religious minorities, upholding the principle of equality in law and practice, and demonstrating that any such violations bring the severest response from the international community.

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