NEWS
Religious Freedom
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
This week, STAND unveiled a unique resource designed to empower every individual to better understand and protect their own fundamental human rights.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The Church of Scientology has to date won every case it has brought before the ECHR to protect the rights of its members to freely practice their religion in the Russian territory.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
On September 28, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Vladimir Leonidovich Kuropyatnik, a Moscow Scientologist, was illegally detained by a Russian police officer who questioned him for over one hour on the basis of his membership in the Scientology religion—an act which violated his human rights.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The bipartisan, three-day summit, with over 1,000 registered to attend, was organized by U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (2018-2021) Sam Brownback, and Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2012-2015), president of the Lantos Foundation and daughter of the late U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Today, National Religious Freedom Day, commemorates the January 16, 1786 adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. The document’s title reads simply: “An act for establishing religious freedom.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
October 27, 2020 marks the 22nd anniversary of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRF Act), described by the U.S. State Department as “landmark legislation that—for the first time—made promoting and defending international religious freedom a specific focus of U.S. foreign policy.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
For the first time in its history, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments by teleconference on certain cases, including a number on religious liberty.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
For the first time, Religions for Peace USA organized a National Interfaith Prayer Service for Healing & Hope via Facebook and Zoom.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In 1654, the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam (present day New York City). Commemorating more than 350 years since that first landing, President George W. Bush proclaimed May 2006 the first annual Jewish-American Heritage Month.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
“In every battle against ignorance and bigotry we have fought, we sought greater freedom for all faiths,” said STAND International Director Edward Parkin. “Our purpose is to enable every person on this earth to believe as he or she chooses, exactly in alignment with the European Convention on Human Rights.”
