Archbishop Bernardito Auza “Defending Religious Freedom and Other Human Rights: Stopping Mass Atrocities against Christians and Other Believers” UN Headquarters ECOSOC Chamber April 28, 2016

Good morning everyone. Before our program gets underway, I would like to note that simultaneous translation is being provided in Spanish on Channel [ ] — Hay traducción simultánea al español que se puede encontrar en el canal [ ] en los auriculares en su asiento — and for the two presentations that will be not be given in English, there will likewise be simultaneous translation on Channel [ ]. So Channel [ ] for Spanish and Channel [ ] for English.

Your , Distinguished Panelists and Guests, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for your presence this morning for this important Conference on Defending Religious Freedom and Other Human Rights: Stopping Mass Atrocities against Christians and Other Believers, sponsored by the Permanent Observer Mission of the to the UN in conjunction with co-sponsors CitizenGo, MasLibres and In Defense of Christians.

When spoke to the General Assembly of the United Nations last September 25th, he renewed what he called his “repeated appeals regarding the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.”

He said, “These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs,” and added, “The most basic understanding of human dignity compels the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of

1 international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities and to protect innocent peoples.”

As we will be examining today, the systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, in several parts of Africa and other parts of the world, is sadly very much ongoing.

We will hear directly from those who have had to endure the violence personally and from parents who lost their courageous daughter to ISIS atrocities.

We will listen to the stories of ones who minister to the victims and who have come here to share with us their experiences.

We will hear from experts who will help us contextualize what has happened and describe the various steps, big and small, that need to be taken to protect those being terrorized, end the violence, and hold accountable those who have been flaunting their trampling of human rights.

We will listen to some who have been involved, at the political and diplomatic levels, in achieving appropriate condemnations of what has been taking place and strengthening the political resolve needed urgently to end the violence and suffering.

And through all the speakers, we will hopefully hear — and hear clearly, resonantly, and unforgettably — the cries of little children and senior citizens, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, millions of human beings just like us and our family and friends, whose lives have been torn apart by the systematic sadism of those who prey upon, torture, enslave, violate and kill the innocent.

There’s no way we can cover everything that needs to be said in the span of a three-hour event. There’s no way we can do justice to every ethnic and religious group that has been targeted for expulsion or extermination.

But what we hope to accomplish is that, through the particulars we will have time to examine, not only to raise awareness about similar suffering anywhere and everywhere it is occurring, but also to raise up what Pope Francis in his UN address called the “effective,

2 practical and constant” will necessary to stop these outrages against human dignity and persons, bring to justice those who treat such barbarous violence almost as a sport or game, and address the causes of extremist violence at their roots.

I thank you for your presence today. To end the atrocities we will be examining today requires the organic involvement of everyone. It’s not enough for us to call on others to do something; each of us, and all of the institutions to which we belong, have a role to play.

Certainly the international community represented here at the United Nations has an indispensable leadership role.

Certainly political and religious leaders must step up to the plate.

Humanitarian organizations must dig even deeper to be adequate to the enormous humanitarian crises being engendered.

But the magnitude and downright savage nature of what is going on requires the whole world to wake up to need to get involved.

For when human dignity is being treated with as much contempt as it is now in these broad theaters, the world must become a global neighborhood in which we all rise up in solidarity and sacrifice to defend, assist and concretely love our neighbor, because the contempt they are being shown is likewise intended for all of us.

So many people in this ECOSOC Chamber and the organizations they represent are on the front lines in this most noble and urgent life-and-death effort. It’s an honor to be in their indomitable presence. We thank them for all that they’re doing and for the example they set for us all and for the entire international community.

As their presence provides us an opportunity to find out more about their work, it also gives us the chance to assist and augment their life-saving mission in defense of religious freedom and other human rights and in stopping mass atrocities against innocent Christians, Muslims, Yezidis, Turkmen and other religious and ethnic groups.

Thank you once again for coming, for your interest in the plight of those suffering from violent extremism, and for all you are doing

3 and will do in order to respond to what Pope Francis terms the “grave summons” that requires us to “do all we can” to protect those in harms way.

Once again, welcome!

Our first keynote speaker is Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, a citizen of Turkey and Permanent Observer of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the UN.

Your , you have the floor.

Thank you, Ambassador, for your powerful words and for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s strong condemnation of extremist violence and defense of human dignity.

I am honored now to give the floor to Mr. Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization, 1.9 million members strong, that not only has been responding to the cries for help coming from the Middle East and elsewhere but used its resources to put together such a compelling 300-page report on the violence against Christians in the Middle East that compelled U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to declare what was happening to Christians, Yezidis and other religious minorities in the region a genocide.

Mr. Supreme Knight, you have the floor.

Thank you, Supreme Knight Anderson, for your and the Knights of Columbus’ passionate defense of Christians and all religious minorities in the Middle East, for the important evidence you’ve assembled about the intent behind the violence and killing — an executive summary of which has been provided to all attendees — and for the powerful case you’ve laid out about the international community’s need to ensure that the Responsibility to Protect to stop genocide and other violent attacks against defenseless people leads to concrete action.

4 Our third keynote speaker is the Honorable Lars Aduktassen, a Member of the European Parliament from Sweden who was the main promoter of the recent Resolution of the European Parliament against the “systematic mass murder of religious minorities by Isis or Daesh,” which is forthrightly named a genocide.

Your Honor, it is an honor to give you the floor.

You have indeed, Your Honor, taken your resolution and powerful resolve in defense of Christians and other victims of violent religious persecution to the United Nations. Thank you for allowing your heart to be broken to the point of persevering action and thank you for moving our hearts profoundly as well.

The final speaker of our opening panel is Dr. Thomas Farr, who is Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and World Affairs at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and former director of the International Religious Liberty Office at the U.S. State Department.

Dr. Farr, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Dr. Farr, for challenging us to serious strategic planning for the field hospital the international community must open up on the present battlefield of the Middle East in order to nurse people and society back to help and to provide for the long-term possibility of pluralism, self-governance and stability. There are, as you noted, no easy solutions, but rather than being an excuse for inaction, it’s a summons for us to marshall all the talents and resources we can to find and carry out the difficult work needed.

I would like to thank all of our panelists — Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, the Honorable Lars Adaktussen and Dr. Thomas Farr — and as they are taking their seats on the floor and the moderator and panelists for our second panel come forward, I would like to thank each of them for their interventions on protecting victims of persecution and fostering religious freedom worldwide.

5 I now turn the second panel over to moderator Ignacio Arsuaga, the President of CitizenGo.

[Second Panel]

[Third Panel, finishes with Kirsten Evans calling you back to the podium]

I thank Ignacio Arusaga and Kirsten Evans for their moderation of the last two panels and reiterate their thanks to each of the panelists — Bishop Bagobiri, Mr. & Mrs. Mueler, Fr. Bazi, Sr. Maria de Guadalupe, Samia, Dr. von Joeden-Forgety and Ms. Isaac — for their powerful contributions.

[Time permitting: We still have a few minutes before we have to vacate the ECOSOC Chamber at 1 pm, and I would like to invite one of the guests in attendance, Jean-Clément Jeanbart, the Melkite Archbishop of Aleppo, Syria, to share for three minutes the experiences he and his people have endured over the last several years. Archbishop Jeanbart, je vous donne la parole.]

Thank you, Archbishop Jeanbart.

I’d like to conclude today’s Conference by reading from the very heartfelt letter Pope Francis wrote to the Christians of the Middle East 16 months ago, which summarize not only the sufferings we’ve heard about but focus us on our response.

“Sadly, afflictions and tribulations … in the Middle East … have been aggravated … because of the continuing hostilities in the region, but especially because of the work of a newer and disturbing terrorist organization, of previously unimaginable dimensions, which has perpetrated all kinds of abuses and inhuman acts. It has particularly affected a number of you, who have been brutally driven out of your native lands, where Christians have been present since apostolic times.

6 “Nor, in writing to you, can I remain silent about the members of other religious and ethnic groups who are also experiencing persecution and the effects of these conflicts. Every day I follow the new reports of the enormous suffering endured by many people in the Middle East. I think in particular of the children, the young mothers, the elderly, the homeless and all refugees, [and] the starving. … This suffering cries out to God and it calls for our commitment to prayer and concrete efforts to help in any way possible .…

“Your very presence is precious for the Middle East. You are a small flock, but one with a great responsibility in the land where Christianity was born and first spread. You are like leaven in the dough. Even more than the many contributions that the Church makes in the areas of education, healthcare and social services, which are esteemed by all, the greatest source of enrichment in the region is the presence of Christians themselves, your presence. …

“Your efforts to cooperate with people of other religions, with Jews and Muslims, is … the best antidote to the temptation to religious fundamentalism, which is a threat for followers of every religion. At the same time, dialogue is a service to justice and a necessary condition for the peace which all so ardently desire.

“The majority of you live in environments which are predominantly Muslim. You can help your Muslim fellow citizens to present with discernment a more authentic image of Islam, as so many of them desire, reiterating that Islam is a religion of peace, one that is compatible with respect for human rights and favors peaceful coexistence on the part of all. This will prove beneficial for them and for all society. The tragic situation faced by our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq, as well as by the Yazidi and members of other religious and ethnic communities, demands that all religious leaders clearly speak out to condemn these crimes unanimously and unambiguously, and to denounce the practice of invoking religion in order to justify them.

Dear brothers and sisters, even though you may not be numerous, you play a significant role. … The entire Church is close to you and supports you, with immense respect and affection for your communities and your mission. We will continue to assist you with our prayers and with every other means at our disposal.

7 “At the same time I continue to urge the international community to address your needs and those of other suffering minorities, above all by promoting peace through negotiation and diplomacy, for the sake of stemming and stopping as soon as possible the violence which has already caused so much harm. … How much longer must the Middle East suffer from the lack of peace?”

Pope Francis finished by emphasizing, “We must not resign ourselves to conflicts as if change were not possible!” Change is possible. And we are all being gravely summoned to be protagonists of that life-saving change.

Thank you once again for your attendance today and for all you are doing and will do in the future to bring that change, to stop mass atrocities against Christians and other believers and to defend religious freedom and all human rights in the Middle East, Nigeria and beyond.

Thank you!

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