IN PICTURES: Civil society congregates on Constitution Hill for urgent call to promote freedom of religion

The Global Citizens’ Human Rights Coalition together with human rights organisations, religious leaders, youth and women organisations joined their voices and called for religious freedom at Constitution Hill.

The rally, which opposed human rights abuses by religious institutions globally, was held across Southern Africa, between 2 and 3 February in various cities including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Harare, and Windhoek. This happened as the world celebrated the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week to promote peace and tolerance among religions and religious institutions.

“The right to religious freedom has increasingly come under threat across the world during 2018, with hostile practices taking place under the guise of protecting national security or countering terrorism,” said the rally’s host and member of the Global Citizens’ Human Rights Coalition in South Africa, Amlindile Mapitiza.

In South Africa, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religions and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission) is increasing its activities to mediate infringements committed by religious institutions while international civil society organisations are calling for governments to intervene and close down religious institutions abusing individuals’ rights to practise their religions of choice freely.

The Global Citizens’ Human Rights Coalition is made up of 100 organisations in South-Korea, including the International Women’s Peace Human Rights Commission, the Christian Association for Anti-Corruption National Movement and the World Buddhist Summit. It was established to expose the practice of coercive conversion in the country and to call for the shutdown of the Christian Council of Korea (CCK) after a 27-year-old woman was murdered for refusing to abandon her faith. The coalition hosted a rally on 27 January in Seoul where 30 000 people gathered to promote the cause.

“In 2018 alone, according to our estimates, the number of coercive conversion victims reached 147, with many others unaccounted for,” Mapitiza said.

According to the coalition, the CCK is not a religious organisation but was formed with a political motive, violating South Korea’s laws which call for the separation of the state and religion. Its leaders use government agencies to bully churches not affiliated with it and sell positions of authority in the organisation as well as pastorships, said another representative of the coalition, Siphesihle Nqanqweni.

“To call them a criminal organisation would not be an exaggeration. This is a disgrace to the name of religion, but also to the religious world,” Nqanqweni said.

Doreen Taylor, a member of the public in attendance, said the CCK should be made to account for its actions while the religious leader in the Hindu faith, Ramalin Chris Moodley, said people should be free to choose whatever they want.