Approximately 370 religious leaders from different churches and Christian movements in Brazil filed a petition to open an impeachment trial against President Jair Bolsonaro. Among the reasons, religious leaders point to the total absence of government initiatives to reduce the impacts of the pandemic, denialism, contempt, and sabotage of prevention and health policies; in sum; …
In recent months, Christian churches (Catholic and non-Catholic) continue to be vandalized. According to the Argentine Council for Religious Freedom, during the month of January, there were attacks by radical feminist protesters against evangelical churches in the province of Misiones. In November 2020, the walls of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Cathedral located in Moreno, …
Open Doors International, an institution that studies the reality of persecuted Christians around the world has just launched the World Watch List 2021. The list presents those countries where it is most challenging to be a Christian. The private, family, community, national, and church life of Christians is studied to identify pressure situations that put …
Venezuela has been the scene of violent incidents that were targeted at Christian leaders and places of worship. Multiple religious leaders have been killed and robberies have been occurring in the last months. Brother Luigi Manganiello, the headmaster of the La Salle religious institute died on January 6th as a result of the injuries he …
Oscar Kendri Fial Echavarría, a young Christian in Santiago de Cuba, will be prosecuted for refusing to enter military service. The man states that he refuses because holding a gun goes against the Christian principles he believes in. A military sector chief went to visit his house to hand him his summons and told him that he …
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, feminist protesters set fire to a banner at the doors of the San José Cathedral, located in Antofagasta. The action of the police prevented the fire from spreading inside the Cathedral and helped the door suffer minor damage, however, this is one more incident …
Cardinal Leopold José Brenes announced that a total of $61,836.65 and C$1,454,305.58 córdobas was raised for victims of hurricanes Eta and Iota that struck Nicaragua between November 3rd and 16th. Official figures indicate that 3 million people were exposed to the effects of both hurricanes, approximately 46% of the population. And that, the damages and …
The International Institute for Religious Freedom just issued the last volume of the International Journal for Religious Freedom: “Gender and Religious Freedom”. Dennis P. Petri, founder and scholar-at-large at the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America contributed with the article “Assessing the specificity of the vulnerability of girls and women belonging to religious minorities”. …
On the 18th of November, a humanitarian aid brigade was attacked by members of a paramilitary group in the community of Tabak, Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico. As a result of this attack, María Isabel Hernández Rea, a nun, was shot in her right leg and needed to be treated in the hospital for her injuries. The …
This comment was written by Thomas de Bruin, an intern with OLIRE. On October 12th, 2020, the interim report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, was released. In his report he focused on multiple aspects of the right to religious freedom and belief. The Special Rapporteur stated that, based …
