OUR CHARTER AS OF JANUARY 2025
We are a coalition of individuals and organizations representing diverse religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, who collectively strive for the global realization of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. We are committed to fostering tolerance and mutual respect among diverse belief systems and, when such beliefs are threatened, we stand united in our opposition to persecution of any kind against an individual or community on account of their faith or lack thereof.
The junction of majority religion and majority politics poses an existential and unique threat to both freedom of thought and secular democracy. In these climates, governance is characterized by negligent legal protection for ‘dissenting’ communities, and judicial partisanship, which work together to institutionally perpetuate the discriminatory treatment of minority faith communities. Moreover, in patriarchal cultures, religious fundamentalism exacerbates the susceptibility of women and girls in religious minority communities to gender-based and faith-specific rights violations.
Many cases are reported in Pakistan in which predominantly juvenile girls from religious minority communities are kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to Muslim men, usually the very same perpetrators of their abductions. While ‘forced conversion’ is not an offense in Pakistan, abduction and forced marriage are both criminal charges. However, by ‘converting’ their victims to Islam and fabricating birth certificates misrepresenting the girls’ ages, perpetrators exploit sharia law which permits the marriage of Muslim girls below the age of 18 so long as they have experienced their first menstruation. Many abductors do not operate alone; facilitators – including Islamic clerics and radical Muslim political parties – solemnize religious conversions and underage marriages expeditiously and without scrutinizing elements such as coercion or intimidation.
A similarly disturbing pattern unfolds in Egypt whereby Muslim men strategically abduct Coptic women and girls – many of whom are identifiable by their adornment of cross necklaces and lack of headscarves – after concluding at which times and locations their targets are defenseless. In other cases, Salafist networks lure Coptic girls into romantic relationships with Muslim men who subsequently force the victims to renounce Christianity and ‘marry into’ Islam. Anguished family members receive videos of their daughters and sisters – visibly under duress – renouncing their Coptic identity and disowning their families. The Egyptian government, despite its awareness of this illicit scheme, refuses to investigate cases of missing Coptic girls and, instead, knowingly and maliciously perpetuates the concocted narratives of unlikely romances and willful faith conversions.
To Egypt’s southwest, Nigeria regrettably has some of the highest rates of child marriage on the African continent notwithstanding the total ratification of the Child Rights Act across 35 of 36 states. Nevertheless, just this month in January 2025, the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict published a statement acknowledging the unabated kidnappings of girls by Boko Haram splinters, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) Specifically condemning that these abductions coincide with sexual exploitation, forced marriage, domestic servitude, the Working Group implored the militant factions to release captive children and cease their targeting of school-aged girls and boys for mass abductions.
Allowing perpetrators to act without consequences perpetuates cycles of abuse, undermines the rule of law, and erodes public trust in justice systems. It is absolutely imperative to address these crimes so that we can uphold human dignity and further enshrine fundamental rights and freedoms.
WE THEREFORE CALL ON STATES TO:
Take note of the new language embedded in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) which calls upon UN Member States to implement actionable measures to protect faith minority girls from such crimes;
Hold governments accountable to their international obligations by submitting shadow reports, attending pre-sessions, and participating in general or thematic discussions organized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW);
Engage regional bodies such as the African Union, ASEAN, or the European Court of Human Rights, depending on the region, to apply multilateral pressure.
Engage with the embassies of Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan by: participating in multilateral dialogues; leveraging diplomatic pressure; relaying grassroots concerns to high-level state representatives; emphasizing the importance of safeguarding human rights as an international obligation and as a domestic interest; offer guidance and/or collaboration in making legal revisions and implementing enforcement mechanisms;
WE ALSO CALL ON CIVIL SOCIETY TO:
Hold governments accountable to their international obligations by submitting shadow reports, attending pre-sessions, and participating in general or thematic discussions organized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW);
Document cases of forced religious conversions in the context of abduction and CEFM, identify gaps in pre-existing criminal legislation and protective laws, and publish evidence-based reports;
Raise awareness among the general public about the implications of forced faith conversions and violations of religious freedom on broader domestic liberties; the dangers of child and underrage marriages; and mechanisms to report abuses;
Foster strategic partnerships with influential faith leaders to unilaterally and unequivocally condemn forced religious conversions and child marriages, while promoting messages of tolerance and freedom of choice.
Foster strategic partnerships with journalists and reporters to expose government inaction or complicity, generate wide-reaching social media campaigns/petItions for accountability, and offer routes to report cases
Foster strategic partnerships with legal advocates to offer litigation services for survivors – and their family members – of forced religious conversions and CEFM
OUR JOINT MISSION FOR THE FUTURE
WHO WE’RE FIGHTING FOR
FURTHER READING
