MONITORING FREEDOM OF FAITH

Human rights activists across the world will be happy at the news that Italy has set up a Commission for Monitoring Religious Freedom in all countries. This is the second such commission in the world after the troubled United States Commission for International Religious Freedom which, in recent years, has been beset by funding problems despite a very good record in “naming and shaming” countries where religious minorities are persecuted by the State or by majority groups. Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi and Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno signed a protocol of understanding today at the foreign ministry in Rome establishing the “Osservatorio della libertà religiosa” (Observatory for Religious Freedom) for the study, analysis and monitoring of freedom of worship around the world. During the signing ceremony Minister Terzi reconfirmed Italy’s determination, along with the Holy See, to act in every international setting on behalf of the assertion of the universal values of interfaith dialogue and tolerance, underscoring the decisive role of the diplomatic network in maintaining Italy’s high profile in those countries where religious minorities continue to be the target of violence, discrimination and persecution. Italy has committed in the UN and the EU to ensure that fostering freedom of worship and peaceful co-existence between faiths would continue to be one of the distinguishing features of the ethical dimension of Italian foreign policy. Human rights issue were part of the discussions at the European Union-India summit on strategic partnership in Delhi in Early February 2012. There had been demands internationally that the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission make human rights a central part of their discussions with Indian officials. The human rights situation in India is “much poor”, international and Indian groups have said in documents prepared for the second Universal Periodic Review that India faces in Geneva in the meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council. While India boasts of a number of human rights organisations created by parliament, the record in all areas of human rights, including freedom of faith, remains dismal. India has yet to enact adequate laws or implement policies to protect marginalized communities, particularly Dalits, tribal groups, religious minorities, women, and children. The government also routinely fails to take action in cases of serious human rights violations, particularly all forms of sexual assault against women, communal violence, enforced disappearances in conflict areas, extrajudicial killings, torture. These issues are compounded by the widespread impunity for abuses and the corresponding problems of access to justice and adequate compensation, international groups such as Human Rights Watch have said. India will really have to clean up its act if it is to really police human rights violations in other countries, especially in south and west Asia.