A Taiwan Declaration for Religious Freedom was announced yesterday following an international conference in Taipei attended by activists, legislators, government representatives and religious leaders from around the world.
Participants in the Asia-Pacific Religious Freedom Forum swelled a Legislative Yuan auditorium as they stood for the reading of the declaration by Freedom House president Mark Lagon.
The declaration said that freedom of thought, conscience and religion was an inalienable human right and called for the review of any laws limiting freedom of conscience and expression.
Delegates promised to work to protect the rights of religious minorities while publicaly condemning any acts of intolerance, discrimination, persecution or violence perpetuated in the name of religion.
“I think it will be a roadmap for those who are from restricted nations,” said China Aid president Bob Fu (傅希秋), whose organization jointly hosted the forum along with former vice president Annette Lu’s (呂秀蓮) Democratic Pacific Union.
The three-day event is set to conclude today and has been attended by advocates, politicians and religious leaders from 26 nations.
Fu called the forum a “platform” to allow networking between advocates in free and restricted nations, calling the resulting declaration “a covenant for us to stick together until true religious freedom is fully realized in every corner of the Asia-Pacific region.”
The Democratic Pacific Union had been instrumental in raising support for the forum and helping to facilitate participant visas, he said, adding that as a forum Taiwan underscored the need for China to open further.
“China is one of the worst persecutors, and I think it is such a contrast that freedom can be realized here in a similar culture, so China has no excuse,” Fu said, adding it was “regretful” that representatives of Tibetan Buddhists and Xinjiang Muslims had been unable to attend after being “discouraged” by the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The Reverend Bernard Munono Muyembe, an official of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that protecting religious freedom in the region was particularly important.
“It is imperative to assure that in Asia – in the Pacific and elsewhere — every human being, regardless of social origin, race, language and culture, has their humanity and inalienable dignity respected, which includes an inherent right to freely choose their religion, to profess it and to worship individually and in community with others who share the same faith, without being subjected to discriminatory treatment as a second class citizen,” he said.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we