The United Nations rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has outlined her ambition in her new appointment, to “join the dots”, working alongside other UN agencies and people on the ground to highlight and correct violations around the world.
Professor Nazila Ghanea, a professor in international rights law at Oxford, was appointed to this unpaid role in August.
Her job is to report independently and impartially to the UN on cases of concern. Her team is responsible for reviewing cases and reporting on two countries a year, and writing one report annually on a particular theme. This year it was on the rights of indigenous people.
She was speaking at a joint event organised by the Religion Media Centre and the UN Faith for Rights programme, which encourages faith groups to stand up for human rights.
Her ambition is to “maximise her mandate” by working closely with others such as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and build on the experience of people working in the field at the grass roots to leverage their work.
She told interviewer John McManus that nobody had a 100 per cent human rights record, but there were countries of serious concern, through to those working successfully with great diversity and it was important to learn from positive examples and good practice.
Professor Ghanea is Iranian and British, but unable to visit her homeland since she left 43 years ago. She said current unrest in Iran over the compulsory wearing of the hijab was multi-layered, but a matter of freedom of religion or belief and she had worked with others in the UN as they considered their response.
“Perhaps in some certain circumstances, depending on the facts of the case, religious symbols may be restricted, but there are six steps of legality that need to be pursued carefully. Whether it’s taking symbols off or being forced to wear them, there are freedom of religion or belief concerns.
“Human rights law does not prohibit having a state religion. What is crucial is that it shouldn’t result in any discrimination against anybody.”
She was asked whether there was an equivalent in the claims of freedom of religion or belief, for example by evangelicals in America who say access to abortion or same-sex marriage threaten their freedom, or against people in northern Nigeria who were killed because of their religion.
No, she replied, cases that involved a violation of freedom of religion or belief were equally worthy of concern.
“I can have the belief, but I cannot use it to violate the rights of others. I can seek to persuade them that abortion is wrong. I can have vigorous dialogue with them about why it’s unacceptable. But freedom of religion or belief does not become an opportunity to violate the rights of others, for me as an individual or for the state, which we see often uses religion or belief as a justification. Human rights law does not support that.”
Professor Ghanea issued a challenge to journalists to take care in the reporting of abuse, citing a report about Christian persecution that used the example of a ban on Christmas trees, when acts of genocide or pre-genocide might be a more compelling example. Or another case where a cleric with six followers burnt the Quran and it became a global story. It was important to cite the context so as not to inflame communal tensions.
In the story of disorder in Leicester in September 2022, where there was unrest between some members of the Hindu and Muslim communities, she had received no communication about it or officially looked into it. It was notable because in previous work she had seen Leicester was a fantastic positive story.
She warned against making generalisations about whole communities from cases involving a small number of people. “We wouldn’t dream of generalising about women or children,” she said. “You cannot tarnish a whole community with the crimes of one or two individuals.”
Professor Ghanea would like to see a journalist take on the challenge of looking in depth as to the causes of the unrest in Leicester and compare it with other cities.
On religious literacy, she was surprised at the number of diplomats around the word who had theology degrees. But in general, she would like to see a clearing house of information from those who had already developed religious literacy toolkits, about basic facts about religion, human rights, and freedom of religion or belief. “Maybe we can make them more accessible” she said.
View the interview between John McManus and Professor Nazila Ghanea below:
