UN Marks First International Day for Victims of Religious Persecution in Belgium

This is an event that, according to RTBF, aims to sound the alarm in order to prevent future discrimination. The President of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the United Nations has given an overview of the initiative in a press release. Indeed, "no one should be persecuted because of their faith and we can never forget those who have been persecuted for it," said Kelsey Zorzi.

Placing particular emphasis on the urgency of creating concrete solutions against this evil, she indicated: "Civil society has a lot to offer decision-makers on religious freedom, but this must go beyond a simple demand for reaction."

For its part, the Catholic aid organization "Aid to the Church in Need" states in a report that 60% of the world’s population lives in countries where freedom of worship is not respected.

According to a report by the British Foreign Office, it appears that more than 4,100 Christians were killed for religious reasons between November 2017 and October 2018 in 50 countries analyzed, with 3,700 in northern and central Nigeria alone, which shows that the Christian community is the one that would face the most hostility around the world.

In its latest report, the public service for the fight against discrimination (UNIA) reported that in Belgium, Islam is more targeted by discriminatory acts than other religious communities, with in particular anti-Semitic and negationist acts, with 101 facts reported in 2018, compared to 56 in 2017. For its part, the Collective against Islamophobia in Belgium (CCIB) noted an increase in Islamophobic acts in 2018, including desecrations, assaults, and degradation of places of worship, reports the same source.