Page 62 - Chr News Today

Jehovahs Witnesses continue to be tortured, and Russia is not following its UN Convention against Torture obligations to punish the perpetrators. After one victim complained, they were amazed "that it was the very same investigator [assigned to the complaint] as is conducting the criminal case [against the other Jehovahs Witnesses]." Officials have repeatedly responded to Forum 18s enquiries by either not answering its questions, or asserting that no torture took place or that a case h...

Four Muslim men jailed for up to six years in a labour camp after meeting together to learn how to pray, to discuss Islamic topics such as prayer, fasting, peaceful jihad, good deeds and other matters, and to attend a mosque. This is the latest known case where Muslim men who met to pray and discuss their faith have been jailed with the use of a police agent provocateur.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the ECHR was imposing too many “obligations on the state”.

Read more about FEATURE-Lithuania's 'gay propaganda' law looms over fight for same-sex unions on Devdiscourse

Like many young LGBT+ people in the Baltic state, a member of the European Union since 2004, he blames the country's "gay propaganda" law. While the 2009 legislation has not been enforced in recent years, LGBT+ rights campaigners say it legitimises homophobic attitudes, curbs free speech and is hampering their fight for same-sex civil partnerships to be legalised.

Religion Law changes to widen state religious censorship and make holding religious meetings more difficult are now in parliaments upper house. Any religious community which does not own its own building, or wants to hold a pilgrimage or other event away from their own place of worship, would have to have advance state permission for the meeting or event – including regular meetings for worship - if the amendments are adopted.

CHR chairperson Chito Gascon dies

Prisoner of conscience Shamil Khakimov was stopped from attending his only sons funeral in September, and has not been hospitalised for the specialised medical treatment he needs. This is despite multiple reminders – the most recent on 13 September – from the UN Human Rights Committee that the regimes human rights obligations require this. Freedom of religion and belief and other human rights of prisoners of all faiths continues to be violated.

A Tashkent court handed 47-year-old Odilbek Khojabekov a five year labour camp sentence to punish him for returning from haj pilgrimage with Islamic literature. A first trial gave him a suspended sentence which was later removed for good probation behaviour. The SSS secret police then pressured ordinary police, prosecutors, and others into giving what the family insists is false testimony at a second trial which jailed him. He is in hiding fearing for his safety. Separately, two prisoners of con...

In preventing or treating covid. recently, earlier in t summer, i issued a certain advisory on health misinformation precisely for this reason, chr. becausif we e really going to tace the covid crisis and get people in our country vaccinated, wehave to hold technology companies accountable for what is happening on their platforms. for the sead of misinformation that in many cases they are allowing. we have to examine our own practices and recognize that sometimes we unintentionally share informa...