Concept Note – Freedom of Expression for Religious Freedoms

Context

Asia Region is world’s most populated region with a number of development challenges posed by range of complex issues in different countries in the region ranging from corrupt governance, socio-economic disparities, diversity of cultures, religion and tribal customs. While Asians should be celebrating the amazing diversity in the region, these issues are often used to create further divisions, promoting discrimination, oppression and controls on people. Freedom of expression and religious freedoms are rapidly regressing at different levels in most parts of Asia region.

For the last three years Pakistan has been rated one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. With over a hundred journalists killed in the last decade, and the prevalence of complete impunity, it is not difficult to imagine the state of freedom of expression in the country. Journalists are not the only community targeted for exercising freedom of– recently a blogger was arrested on charges of blasphemy for writing a blog that was perceived as offensive and blasphemous. The expression of political opinion through gatherings and protests has also attracted violence and ire of the government. The internet remains the communication medium most open for expressions of dissent but even this is under threat.

This crackdown on the expression of political and religious opinion is not limited to Pakistan.

In Maldives, a country where being non-Muslim is illegal, secular bloggers have been targeted either to be killed or forced to leave the country. Article 19 and Amnesty International have raised concerns about the ‘disturbing increase in clampdowns on freedom of expression’. Several bloggers have been killed in Bangladesh on blasphemy charges by mob justice or non-state actors.

After a fact finding mission to Malaysia, UNSRs on Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Association and Assembly and Situation of Human Rights Defenders stated that The Sedition Act is used in a way that prevents Malaysians from expressing and debating, freely and openly, a diverse range of political opinions and ideas”.

All religious groups are experiencing intimidation and repression alongside those critical of government. Whether it is anti-Ahmadiyya laws in Indonesia and Pakistan, the targeting of religious minorities in Burma and Sri Lanka or a crackdown on bloggers and journalists for criticizing the monarchy in Thailand, freedom of expression is under siege across Asia.

The situation is even more troubling when seen in the context of religious freedoms – not only are people targeted for voicing their opinions but the targeting is much more violent, intense and persistent if the opinions of dissent come from a group of religious minorities. In parallel we are seeing internet freedom around the region has declined, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are more aggressive in the way they target individual users.

The proposed conference is an attempt to bring together human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and other stakeholders from all over Asia to discuss, debate, understand and identify solutions for this urgent human rights challenge and understand the role the internet can play in helping preserve religious freedom of freedom of expression.

Objectives

The issues highlighted above barely are merely the tip of the iceberg. In countries like Pakistan and other religious states around Asia, discrimination against religious minorities and in effect the curbs on their freedom of expression are constitutionalized. In this regard, we hope that this conference will allow us to create a network that is capable of exerting the necessary pressure on states to tackle these challenges.

The conference has the following key objectives:

1. Bringing together Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Organizations from across Asia;

2. Developing an understanding regarding the direction of future advocacy of FoE in the context of religious freedoms;

3. To understand what role the internet is playing and can play in promoting freedom of expression and religious toleration online;

4. Raising awareness about Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred;

5. Introducing participating CSOs to UN Human Rights Mechanisms, specifically on the issue of FoE and Religious Freedom;

6. Engaging the relevant UNSRs in current debate over the issues of FoE and Religious Freedoms in Asia; and

7. Generate global support for the region from research think tanks, academia, donors and human rights friendly governments to help reverse the negative trends on basic freedoms.

Expected Outcomes

The conference aims to generate debate that is productive, form networks that can continue engagement and solution oriented collaboration on the theme. By engaging multiple UNSRs in the event, we also hope to be able to raise some pressure over Asian states to better the situation in their countries.

More specifically, we are looking for the following outcomes;

1. Joint statement by participating UNSRs on the issue, addressing both the civil society and the government;

2. Civil Society Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Religious Freedoms in Asia regions;

3. Renewed Discussion on Rabat Action Plan and UN Resolution 16/18 for combating intolerance and hatred; and

4. Development of a network of likeminded civil society organizations that can continue to collaborate effectively on the issue.

Format of the Event

The conference will be held on June 3-5, 2015, in Jakarta Indonesia. The event will be held over three days involving different types of activities to ensure maximum productivity. A total of 70 – 75 participants will be invited to attend from across Asia. The select participants will represent different stakeholder groups mainly CSOs, media, researchers and media ranging from Afghanistan to Indonesia. To bring a more global and southern perspective, we also hope to invite few key activists from the Middle East, Africa and Southern American regions.

A regional call will be made for 10-15 slots at the conference to bring in some of the leading bloggers and media professionals from the Asia region. These participants will be selected to participate at the event based on their past work on these issues and future commitments. This process will also help provide much needed media coverage to the conference in all different Asian countries.

The event will be conducted as a mix of keynotes led by UNSRs, plenary discussions, breakout groups and working sessions. Invited UNSRs or globally renowned subject specialists will lead all the panel discussions.

Expert Participation

Maximum effort will be made to ensure that the foremost and leading international and regional experts are able to participate in the event. A number of outcomes of this event are tied to active participation of relevant UNSRs. For this purpose the following UNSRs will be invited to attend the conference:

1. Prof. Dr. David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Confirmed);

2. Prof. Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (to be confirmed);

3. Dr. Mutuma Ruteere, Special Rapporteur on Racism (to be confirmed).

In addition other world-renowned subject experts like Mr. Frank la Rue will also be invited.

The detailed agenda of the conference is yet to be finalized, however efforts will be made to ensure that the whole event is participatory, includes working sessions to encourage participants to come up with their own reports and recommendations and allows space and time for impromptu discussions on sub-themes that emerge from discussion within participants.

Main Collaborating Partners (in alphabetical order):

Venue

The visa regime between different countries in Asia region is extremely complex and difficult. Quite often, this challenge becomes quite exclusionary. In addition, the debate on FoE is not welcomed anymore in most Asian countries. Considering these challenges, we propose the conference to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Including India, most of the ASEAN states do not need visas to travel to Indonesia. However, for the South Asians, Indonesian Forum-Asia members are quite influential and already agreed to extend support for visa processing for the conference delegates.

Way Forward

Issues related to religious freedoms are increasingly becoming difficult to tackle at national levels. In Pakistan there has been precedent of people being murdered simply for raising apprehensions about the misuse of blasphemy law. In such environments, it is important to work as a network that can plan, strategies and act together.

We hope that a joint statement by the UNSRs will go a long way for advocacy and campaigning on freedom of expression and religious freedom issues. The involvement of the Special Rapporteurs will make governments in Asia more accountable at UN Human Rights Council. A joint declaration by the Asian civil society will serve as a continued reminder that these issues will have to be tackled on emergency basis. It will also help the human right defenders from across Asia identify and later collaborate on challenges that are similar across the region.

We hope that donors working on the issue of civil liberties, will be also be able to further their own understanding of the dire situation of FoE and religious freedoms in Asia; thus being motivated to support further initiatives in these areas. We also hope that bringing HRDs from African and Latin American countries would lead to increased South-South collaboration, allowing us to learn from different experiences across the world.