A public lecture with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, on the state of freedom of religion or belief in Asia

10:00 am, Monday 20 August 2018

Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand

No registration needed, free admission & food will be served before and after the lecture

The event will also be live-streamed on FORUM-ASIA’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FORUMASIA/

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According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This includes the right to have, adopt or manifest a chosen religion or belief. As such it is a fundamental human right that should not be curtailed, threatened or denied. Unfortunately, in Asia, and across the globe, in too many instances this is being done on a daily bases.

What complicates matters, arguably more than with any other fundamental human right, is that in many cases the freedom of religion or belief is being used to violate or undermine the exact same freedom of others. Across the region people are being attacked and threatened for exercising their freedom of religion or belief, or non-belief, often by individuals, groups or institutions who use religion as a pretext to do so.

In present day Asia, where it is impossible to address the freedom of religion or belief without also contemplating the crackdown on other human rights, such as the freedom of expression, assembly and association, reviewing what the state is of the freedom of religion or belief is consequently both a crucial and complex discussion to have.

Join the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, for an informative overview of the current state of freedom of religion or belief in Asia on Monday 20 August 2018 at 10:00 am at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.

Media contacts in Bangkok:

• For more information or if you want to set up an interview with the Special Rapporteur, please contact [email protected].

About the Special Rapporteur:

On 1 November 2016, Ahmed Shaheed assumed his mandate as Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. He is Deputy Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre. He was the first Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the termination of the previous Commission on Human Rights mandate in 2002. A career diplomat, he has twice held the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives. He led Maldives’ efforts to embrace international human rights standards between 2003 and 2011.

Please click here for a full resume.

About the organiser:

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is a network of human rights organisations across Asia. FORUM-ASIA works to promote and protect human rights, including the right to development, through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organisations and defenders in Asia and beyond. www.forum-asia.org