Parliamentary report to call for more religious freedom

CALLS for the UK Government to take more action to tackle violations of religious freedom around the world are to be spelled out in a parliamentary report out on Wednesday (26th June).
The newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom’s report into the state of religious freedom in the world highlights the situation of millions of people around the world who face persecution or discrimination because of their beliefs.
It calls on government to redouble efforts to ensure that people around the world are free to follow their conscience in matters of religion and belief.
The report, written by academics from leading UK universities, draws on testimony delivered to politicians by representatives from a range of human rights and faith-based groups, including Aid to the Church in Need.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group, chaired by Baroness Berridge, consists of members from the House of Commons and House of Lords representing the spread of political parties.

Editor’s Notes

www.acnuk.org

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Blessed John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, Aid to the Church in Need’s Child’s Bible – God Speaks to his Children has been translated into 172 languages and more than 50 million copies have been distributed all over the world.
Aid to the Church in Need UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1097984) and Scotland (SC040748). ACN’s UK office is in Sutton, Surrey and there is a Scottish office in Motherwell, near Glasgow.

While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information, contact John Pontifex, ACN UK Head of Press and Information 020 8661 5161 or John Newton, ACN Press Officer, 020 8661 5167.