1. What is the Problem?

Recent reports indicate an increase in government repression of religious communities in numerous areas of the world; in addition, many religious communities themselves once more are becoming intolerant of those not sharing their beliefs, especially those seen as schismatic or heretical. During a two month period last year, some 4366 petitions involving religious discrimination were received at the United Nations, ranging in subject and areas from massacre of the Baha'is in Iran, to harrassment of the Coptic Church in Egypt and the Islamic minority in India, to arrests of priests in Brazil, and repression of Christian Protestants in the Soviet Union. No area of the world, no religion is immune from this problem. I have used the term discrimination rather than persecution deliberately, for three reasons.

One, all religious intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief violates international human rights law. The term religious persecution does not appear in any international treaty or declaration concerned with human rights. Where persecution does appear is in common usage to describe a particularly serious situation of discrimination, one where a campaign or program is initiated to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate a people because of their religious, ethical, or moral beliefs. This definition comprises the concepts of both

an orchestrated plan and of a particular genocidal goal, that

of eliminating the group in question as a separate entity. As such, persecution forms an extreme example of discrimination in the same way that international jurisprudence has come to view torture as an aggravated form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

While such situations demand urgent

attention, at the same time it must be remembered that all religious intolerance and discrimination is prohibited under international norms.

A second reason for addressing the broader issue is that the line between discrimination and persecution is very difficult to draw, depending as it does on an assessment of the ultimate goal of those carrying out the discrimination, whether it is "merely" repressive or fully genocidal.

Thirdly, the ultimate elimination of persecution may only be accomplished, if at all, through combating all forms of discrimination based on religion or belief. Discrimination can easily shift into persecution during times of societal stress, when discriminatory laws and practices provide the legal justification for government-initiated religious

persecution.

The pervasiveness of such discrimination is revealed in the work of the UN Human Rights Committee to implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Of the first 52 state reports concerning compliance with the standards of the Covenant, the Committee raised questions on the compatibility of state laws or practices with the guarantee of religious liberty in 41. The countries

involved represent every geographical, economic and political

grouping in the world.

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2. The Violators

Most, but not all, religious discrimination and persecution historically was and is today practiced by governments,

especially those linked to a particular religion.
For many
centuries, each state maintained close official relations, or
even identity, with its predominant religion. Rulers were
sometimes deified, as in the Roman empire, and any denial of
the predominant religion was ipso facto treasonable.
religions were totally excluded from legal existence within
the state and their adherents ruthlessly exterminated.

Other

In such cases, a few of which we see today, those who frequently suffer the greatest are not those moving into the country bringing an alien religion, but those within the state who break away from the state religion to reform what are seen as corruptions in the established system, or who claim new revelations. To the state and state religion they are

"heretics" forming "sects" and the greatest threat to established power. Schisms of this type have been perhaps the major

triggering event in religious persecution since Akhnaton first

tried to introduce monotheism into ancient Egypt.

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They are: Syria, Cyprus (2), Hungary (2), Ecuador, Chile, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Ukraine SSR, United Kingdom (2), Finland (2), Libya, Sweden, Denmark (2), Czechoslovakia, Germany (DDR), Norway (2), Germany (FR), Yugoslavia, Jordan, USSR, Senegal, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Italy, Barbados, Kenya, Mali, and Jamaica.

A recent tragic example of this is the situation of the

Iranian Baha'i.

Denied existence as a separate religion, the

Baha'i have been considered heretics within Islam since the

religion was founded 138 years ago in Iran. On March 16, 1980,

two Baha'is were convicted of and executed for "creating discord and disunity among Moslems" through teaching the Baha'i faith and membership in Baha'i institutions. Fourteen more were executed in June 1980 for practicing their religion. Baha'i shrines and cemetaries have been desecrated, administrative centers and savings confiscated. The entire Iranian National

Baha'i administrative body was abducted and disappeared in August 1980. A systematic effort appears underway to eradicate this "heresy" from the Moslem state.

It must be pointed out that the present-day existence of an established religion, which is the case in approximately 35 countries, does not lead necessarily to religious discrimination or persecution. established state religion remains primarily as an historical relic, with other religions having achieved a status virtually identical with the established faith, as in the cases of England and Denmark. Furthermore, separation of church and state is no absolute guarantee of religious liberty; it simply raises the different problems. For example, "separation" may take the form of hostility towards or persecution of all religious activity, as in the Soviet Union where dogmatic

In some countries, the existence of an

anti-religion is akin to a religion of state. In other cases, de facto prominance of one religion is reflected in the laws of the state and results in discriminating against minority religions. This is to some extent perhaps unavoidable as

laws do reflect the dominant values of the societies which

enact them.

As a further problem, where there is separation of religion and state, questions arise as to the dividing line between activities of church and those of state. For the religious individual that line, wherever drawn, may appear artificial, since all human activities are extensions into practice of religious beliefs. However, an intrusion into what the nonbeliever views as secular matters, from abortion to military service, to land reform, can result in intolerance or even persecution when the activities undertaken are perceived as a threat to the state or to powerful political and economic Much of the persecution during the 1970's of Jehovah's Witnesses in Malawi and more recently reported in Cuba, stem from this problem. It must be noted that some constitutions and laws expressly forbid political activity by religious groups, for example, Albania, Bulgaria, Germany (GSR), Yugoslavia.

interests.

Throughout the world religious groups concerned with economic reform and social justice have been viewed as

subversives by repressive regimes and subject to harrassment,