Resources

FoRBLN Toolkit for African Parliamentarians

This Toolkit has been designed by consortium members with African parliamentarians in mind.  The FoRBLN primer is a briefing document that gives parliamentarians an introductory overview of FoRB.  The ‘What is FoRB?‘ toolkit 1 provides more detail of the international legal norms and human rights dimensions of FoRB.  The ‘Why is FoRB important?‘ toolkit 2 gives practical examples and explanations as to why FoRB remains an important dimension in the work of championing human rights.

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What is FoRB – Toolkit 1_Website

 

The Jinnah Institute was commissioned to produce a series of vlogs and podcasts with experts and influencers to assist parliamentarians, faith and belief leaders and wider civil society reflect on presenting challenges to FoRB in Pakistan.

JI is a non-profit, independent public policy think tank based in Islamabad that seeks to promote knowledge-based policy making for strengthening democratic institution in Pakistan and to build public stakes in human and national security discourse. It is committed to investing in policies that promote fundamental rights, tolerance and pluralism.

 

The International Commission of Jurists was commissioned to prepare country reports on FoRB as part of the FoRBLN activity and reports on Pakistan and Uganda published in 2021 and 2022.

ICJ is an international non governmental human rights organisation which works to develop national and international human rights standards through the law.

The ICJ’s briefing papers analyzes and makes recommendations about violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in Uganda and Pakistan.

In its report on Uganda, ICJ argue that the Ugandan authorities must promptly address serious and ongoing violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in the country arising from the State’s failure to respect and ensure the right to freedom of religion or belief of individuals, particularly those practising “traditional” indigenous religions or beliefs.

In its report on Pakistan, ICJ arge that the Government of Pakistan must urgently respond to serious and ongoing persecution by State and non-State actors of individuals from religious minority groups, in particular the Shia Muslim community, which has been the target of violence throughout the country; inadequate protection and application of personal laws of religious minority communities; and compelling individuals from religious minority communities to receive Islamic religious instruction in public schools

 

AfriPAHR has been working within the FoRBLN consortium to develop the network and to offer advice and guidance.  Tools can be dowloaded from the regional hub of the IPPFoRB at https://afripahr.com/resources/

 

The right to freedom of religion or belief is linked in important ways to the Sustainable Devleopment Goals (SDGs). The SDGs represent the unequivocal commitment of all UN member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrination and exclusion, and to reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity. In many instances, a major cause of people being left behind is persistent forms of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, which leaves individuals, families and whole communities marginalised and excluded.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights has produced a series of expert briefings exploring the intersection of FoRB and the UN Sustainable Devleopment Goals.  These briefings were published in 2021 and 2022 and formed the basis of a webinar series on the issues raised in the briefings. The webinar series was organised by the International Panel of parliamentarains for Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Speaker presentations from all the High-level Dialogue are also available to listen.

A series of Learning Blogs have also been produced to capture some of the insights from the individual Dialogues.