RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 Public Affairs and Religious Liberty 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 © 2018 Public Affairs and Religious Liberty 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 4 4 | RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 COUNTRIES 9 SOURCES 337 THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 339 THANK YOU 340 CONTACT INFORMATION 341 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 5 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 | 5 INTRODUCTION “Once a self-evident truth, religious freedom is now subject to the deepest deconstructionist suspicion.”1 As a point of contention, this issue goes beyond academic debates, as is evident in a recent report of the United States Civil Rights Commission in which “religious exemptions” are positioned over against civil rights. It states: “Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights.” The chairman of the Commission, in a separate statement, further argued that: “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.” The framing of religious liberty or assimilation of its content with the above evils is deeply reductionist and troubling. Should “religious liberty” be caught in a crossfire of proxy wars on morality between radical secularists and religiously driven persons? Religious liberty deserves a broader and more legitimate platform. Religious liberty is a human right as recognized and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The true scope and nature of religious liberty transcends any local or national boundary. Its universality is part of its cornerstone principle. It is, after all, a human right. We should not lose sight of this “human” aspect. In essence, all human beings are entitled to their freedom of religion or belief. Freedom of conscience, the most intimate freedom, is the ground and justification for religious freedom. Moreover, this freedom participates in what it means to be human. What is at stake when it comes to religious liberty is a definition of what it means to be human. This is both an anthropological and a sociological question. Self-identity and relations with fellow human beings who share the space of 1 Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah, Journal of Law and Religion, Volume 31, Issue 3 November 2016, 380-395. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 6 6 | RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 civil society certainly raise complex philosophical and existential issues. Nonetheless, engagement with this question is inescapable. Religious liberty seems to be situated at the confluence of what matters most to the whole human family: the right to believe according to the dictates of one’s conscience. The alternative is subjugation to others’ preferences or even slavery. The dignity of the human person deserves much better. Religious liberty, by virtue of its interrelatedness, interdependency, and indivisibility with other fundamental freedoms, is actually in itself a compound freedom, central to other freedoms. Among these are freedom of thought, of choice and change of religious or philosophical affiliation, based on freedom of conscience and freedom of expression and association. Legal provisions and protections for this fundamental right are necessary. However, the philosophical, anthropological, and ethical foundations are purposed to boost motivations and mobilizations to show solidarity with the whole human family. It becomes elevated then to the “statute of righteousness.” In the current debate in some parts of the world, the language of religious exemptions should not infer that religious freedom is a favor granted by a state. The very fact international law recognizes it as a human right should take the debate to a deeper level. Accommodations should be negotiable as part of acceptance of the principle of tolerance. For tolerance does not mean agreement with others’ moral choices. It does not mean condescension, which would betray the principle of equality. Majority does not mean superiority. However, tolerance does mean respecting the right to choose for all, without this right forcing anyone into violating one’s conscience. The undergirding anti-value all should fight against is hatred of other members of the human family; anything that discriminates against or criminalizes others or appropriates the role of the state as the distributor of retributive justice. Separation of religion and state involves civil negotiations in all fairness and justice. The foundation of the edifice of the Christian faith which Seventh-day Adventists embrace is dignity for all, freedom for all, and especially love for fellow human beings. Promoting religious freedom is a way of participating in the collective restoration of human dignity, historically and currently trampled in so many ways. This World Report describes how each country relates to religious freedom, both in its constitution and in civil society. Government restrictions and popular RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 7 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 | 7 hostility to the rights of minorities are reported. How Seventh-day Adventists are able to practice their faith is mentioned as an example of a minority community of faith. We encourage all nations to build together a better humanity using, among other constructive means, this formidable tool, freedom of religion or belief. We are grateful to Dr. Nelu Burcea and Attorney Bettina Krause for their work producing this tool meant to inform and encourage all people of good will. Ganoune Diop, Ph.D Director, Public Affairs & Religious Liberty General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Secretary General, International Religious Liberty Association RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 8 8 | RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 LIST OF COUNTRIES Afghanistan ............................. 13 Cambodia................................ 62 Albania ................................... 14 Cameroon ............................... 64 Algeria .................................... 16 Canada .................................... 65 American Samoa ..................... 17 Cape Verde ............................. 67 Andorra ................................... 18 Cayman Islands ....................... 68 Angola .................................... 20 Central African Republic ......... 69 Anguilla .................................. 21 Chad ....................................... 70 Antigua and Barbuda ............... 22 Chile ....................................... 72 Argentina ................................ 23 China ...................................... 73 Armenia .................................. 25 Colombia ................................ 76 Aruba ...................................... 27 Comoros ................................. 77 Australia ................................. 28 Congo, Democratic Austria .................................... 30 Republic of the ........................ 79 Azerbaijan............................... 32 Congo, Republic of the ............ 80 Bahamas ................................ 34 Cook Islands ........................... 82 Bahrain .................................. 35 Costa Rica............................... 83 Bangladesh............................. 37 Cote d'lvoire............................ 84 Barbados ................................. 38 Croatia .................................... 86 Belarus ................................... 39 Cuba ....................................... 88 Belgium ................................. 41 Cyprus .................................... 89 Belize ...................................... 42 Czech Republic ....................... 91 Benin ...................................... 43 Denmark ................................. 93 Bermuda ................................. 45 Djibouti .................................. 95 Bhutan ................................... 46 Dominica ................................ 96 Bolivia ................................... 48 Dominican Republic ................ 98 Bosnia and Herzegovina ......... 49 Ecuador .................................. 99 Botswana ................................ 50 Egypt ...................................... 100 Brazil ...................................... 52 El Salvador ............................. 102 British Virgin Islands .............. 54 Equatorial Guinea ................... 103 Brunei Darussalam ..................55 Eritrea ..................................... 105 Bulgaria ................................. 56 Estonia .................................... 107 Burkina Faso .......................... 58 Ethiopia .................................. 108 Burma (Myanmar) .................. 59 Falkland Islands ...................... 110 Burundi .................................. 61 Fiji .......................................... 111 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 9 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORLD REPORT 2017 | 9 Finland ................................... 113 Kiribati ................................... 165 France .................................... 114 Korea, Democratic French Guiana ........................ 116 People’s