Page 23 - Conscientious Objection News Today

From 2018 mosques have had to pay for surveillance cameras controlled by the regime to be installed inside and outside mosques. In early 2022, the Interior Ministry also ordered non-Muslim communities to install the cameras. Muslim and non-Muslim religious communities and followers have told Forum 18 that some people have stopped attending meetings for worship, for fear of being identified and then facing state reprisals. A Muslim commented that "we want to concentrate on our meetings for w...

Commentary Freedom of religion is fundamental to the American concept of ordered liberty. But President Joe Biden doesn’t ...

If there is one thing that this season seeks to teach us, it is that Hope exists all around us, even when there seems to be none. Seedlings from brown,

Former prisoner of conscience Oybek Khamidov is on trial after his younger brother fled Andijan, following police questioning over five days after a teahouse discussion of Islam with friends. Khamidov was threatened that if he did not help police find his brother, he would be put on criminal trial. The family have no knowledge of his brothers current whereabouts. The indictment claims Khamidov "did not learn his lesson" and began again "storing and distributing religious materials...

The following interview was conducted by Reiner Braun, Executive Director of the International Peace Bureau, 1910 Nobel Prize winning organization over

On 22 March, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Nagorno-Karabakh had violated the rights of Jehovahs Witnesses by refusing from 2009 to register their community in the entity. The ECtHR ordered Armenia – as exercising "effective control" there - to pay compensation. Jehovahs Witnesses and some Protestant communities are still denied registration. Armenias Representative to the ECtHR has not stated what steps Armenia will take to end the violations.

Peace, in the deepest sense – in the midst of war – requires a clarity and courage well beyond the boundaries of linear understanding. The warning lights flash. World War III has entered...

Peace, in the deepest sense — in the midst of war — requires a clarity and courage well beyond the boundaries of linear understanding.

The Ukrainian declaration to legally accept the ICC’s jurisdiction is the legal basis for the ICC Prosecutor to proceed with opening an investigation into this situation. However, it will be quite difficult to detain suspects from uncooperative Non-State Parties as long as they remain in the non-State party in question – Professor Hitomi Takumera pointed out in a conversation about the international legal aspect of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Since early 2022, Police in Tashkent have targeted Muslims with raids, house searches, detentions, arrests, administrative punishments (for allowing prayers to take place on business premises and for teaching religion without state permission), and criminal investigations. Police detained an 18-year-old woman they had earlier pressured for wearing the hijab and studying Arabic. After ten hours questioning without food or water, the young woman – who has anaemia - fainted. Police refused to...