Ján Figeľ | Promoting Human Dignity | United Nations Webinar | 24 Jan 2024

This webinar is convened to take stock of states' and civil society members’ ongoing commitment to the repeal of the death penalty for exercising freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief and flag the convergence of this campaign in recognising each individual’s human dignity.

We are calling on states to support language to:

Include freedom of thought and conscience in the preambular paragraph of the UNGA resolution, in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18. As the Rabat Plan for Action Commitment I notes, “Freedom of conscience is imperative and larger than the freedom of religion or belief. It covers all ethics and values a human being cherishes, whether of religious nature or not.”

Implement the Rabat Plan of Action, by decriminalising apostasy and blasphemy, to address the root causes to acts that could amount to extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution committed against persons for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and freedom of expression.

In light of the numerous state-sponsored summary executions or indifference to intolerant actors' executions of people for exercising their freedom of conscience, the IRF Summit Campaign to repeal the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy have chosen to focus our efforts this year on the UNGA biennial resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Considering the situation around the world a large part of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions target individuals for their exercise of freedom of conscience, religion and belief – to ensure that no one is left behind - we are urging for the inclusion of freedom of conscience in addition to the recently inserted freedom of religion or belief in the preambular paragraph of the resolution in 2022.

In 2022 over 90 organisations and individuals signed a charter calling for the repeal of anti-blasphemy and anti-apostasy laws specifically noting the at least 12 countries which continue to maintain the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy.

PLEASE JOIN US:
https://jubileecampaign.org/united_nations/irf-summit-2024/

https://youtu.be/FxlyhAasRAM