The Bill, introduced by Jim Shannon MP (Democratic Union Party), would, if passed, require the Government to continue making this appointment.
Mr Shannon’s FoRB Bill has received support from the former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has suggested that the issue of religious freedom “does not seem to be particularly important to the new Labour government”.
He told the Church Times this week that he was “worried” that the Government was “deprioritising this issue, perhaps because it is not seen as politically correct to stand up for Christians”.
The UK, he said, by giving state aid, without challenge, to regimes with a poor FoRB record, risked leaving people who were persecuted for their faith vulnerable. “These are not wealthy white minorities but some of the poorest indigenous populations, who are being hounded for their beliefs by regimes who accept a lot of aid from the UK. If we want to do something about it, we can,” he said.
Mr Hunt, an Anglican, championed religious freedom when he was Foreign Secretary, commissioning, in 2018, an independent review of the persecution of Christians around the world. Earlier that year, the Prime Minister, Theresa May, had appointed a Foreign Office minister, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, an Ahmadi Muslim, as the first Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB.
The author of the review, published in 2021 (News, 5 November 2021), was the then Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, now Bishop of Winchester. He told the Church Times this week that the Government’s rhetoric on appointing someone to champion the issue was “wearing increasingly thin”.
He voiced concern that, without the appointment of a Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB, “the UK will lose the leading role internationally it has gained in recent years,” and “would be failing in its moral duty to stand up for some of the most vulnerable communities — of all faiths — worldwide.
“The Government’s much-repeated mantra that the FoRB special envoy role will be announced ‘in due course’ is wearing increasingly thin. It is now urgent, and I will continue to take every opportunity to raise this in the House of Lords.”
His review had found that, of all persecuted minorities globally, Christians were the most targeted faith group. It also found that the UK Government had been “more reluctant” to highlight the persecution of Christians if other interests were involved. The charity Open Doors estimates that about 365 million Christians experience persecution or discrimination for their faith.
Writing on the website CapX on Red Wednesday, last week — a day designated by Aid to the Church in Need to highlight religious persecution — Mr Hunt said that, since the publication of the review, the UK had used its positions on the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and in the G7 to advocate for FoRB. It had also, he said, co-founded the International Religion and Belief Alliance, which now had 38 members. The special envoy, Mr Hunt argued, was “an important driver” behind these achievements.
“The fact that the government has still not appointed a new Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) is a cause of great concern,” he wrote. “Sadly, religious freedom does not seem to be particularly important to the new Labour government.”
Given that religious freedom was a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he wrote: “I would have expected Keir Starmer — as a human-rights lawyer with experience in Northern Ireland — to have made FoRB a major foreign-policy priority.”
David Burrowes, a former deputy special envoy for FoRB, echoed this. “It would be a great shame if the Government’s commemoration of the forthcoming Human Rights Day [10 December], when international human-rights advocates will come together at the FCDO, is marred by the continued delay in appointing a Special Envoy for FoRB.”
A government spokesperson said on Wednesday that the UK “champions, and remains strongly committed to, Freedom of Religion or Belief for all abroad. No one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in.
“Envoy appointments are under Ministerial consideration and will be decided upon in due course. We will continue to use the strength of our global diplomatic network and our position at the UN, G7, other forums to promote and protect Freedom of Religion or Belief around the world.”