FoRB in Full

International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict: Statement by the Parents of Leah Sharibu

Posted on 19/06/2026 by cswpress in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa

We are Nathan and Rebecca Sharibu, the parents of Leah Sharibu. Today, as organizations within the Religious Liberty Partnership gather under the powerful banner of “Voices for Justice” to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, we speak with heavy hearts but unwavering hope.

Our daughter Leah, abducted as a 14-year-old Christian schoolgirl from the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018, remains in the captivity of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists for more than eight long years.

Leah was taken alongside 109 other girls. Most were eventually released, but our daughter was held back solely because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam. She stood firm in her belief, choosing to remain true to Christ even at the cost of her freedom.

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Nigeria Does Not Have a Kidnapping Problem. It Has a Protection Accountability Problem.

Posted on 11/06/2026 by cswpress in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa

On 15 May 2026 armed men attacked three schools in Oriire Local Government Area, Oyo State. Forty-six pupils and teachers were taken. On the same day — the same day — forty-two children were abducted from Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba, Borno State. A mathematics teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was killed. His students watched. Three weeks have passed. Most of those children are still missing.

Nigeria does not have a kidnapping problem. Nigeria has a protection accountability problem. The kidnapping is the outcome. The accountability failure is the system.

The Record on Paper

Nigeria endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration in 2015. It launched a National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools in 2021. In December 2022 the government committed ₦144.8 billion to a Safe Schools financing plan running through 2026. A National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre was established. Security personnel were trained across all 36 states.

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Sacred Sites, Silenced Voices: Indigenous Pluralism is Under Threat in Colombia’s Black Line

Posted on 08/06/2026 by cswpress in Colombia, Latin America

The Black Line (Línea Negra), known by the indigenous people who live there as Sé shizha, is the system of sacred spaces that delineates the ancestral territory of the Arhuaco, Kankuamo, Kogui and Wiwa peoples in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in Northern Colombia.

For these peoples, it constitutes not merely a geographical boundary, but a spiritual network comprising ceremonial sites, places for ritual offerings or pagamentos, ancestral connection, and the maintenance of global equilibrium in accordance with the Law of Origin – a set of spiritual, cultural and normative principles that, indigenous peoples believe guide the relationship between individuals, nature, the land and communal life.

Recently however, concerns have arisen regarding the rights of these communities to have a say in the governance of these sites, with traditional authorities in Aracataca, Ciénaga and Santa Marta in Magdalena Department asserting that they were never convened or genuinely and effectively involved in decision-making processes related to the protection of the Black Line.

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Lugares Sagrados, Voces Silenciadas: El pluralismo indígena está bajo amenaza en la Línea Negra de Colombia

Posted on 08/06/2026 by cswpress in Colombia ES, español, Latin America ES

La Línea Negra, conocida por los pueblos indígenas que habitan la región como Sé shizha, es el sistema de espacios sagrados que delimita el territorio ancestral de los pueblos Arhuaco, Kankuamo, Kogui y Wiwa en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, al norte de Colombia.

Para estos pueblos, no se trata simplemente de una frontera geográfica, sino de una red espiritual compuesta por sitios ceremoniales, lugares para realizar ofrendas rituales o “pagamentos”, espacios de conexión ancestral y de mantenimiento del equilibrio del mundo de acuerdo con la Ley de Origen, un conjunto de principios espirituales, culturales y normativos que, según las creencias indígenas, orientan la relación entre las personas, la naturaleza, el territorio y la vida comunitaria.

Sin embargo, recientemente han surgido preocupaciones respecto al derecho de estas comunidades a participar en la gobernanza de estos sitios. Autoridades tradicionales de Aracataca, Ciénaga y Santa Marta, en el departamento del Magdalena, afirman que nunca fueron convocadas ni involucradas de manera genuina y efectiva en los procesos de toma de decisiones relacionados con la protección de la Línea Negra.

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As hard as it may be to hold the Nicaraguan government to account, the world has not forgotten Pastor Efren Antonio Vílchez López

Posted on 26/05/2026 by cswpress in Latin America, Nicaragua

‘They closed the embassy around three or four years ago but didn’t really tell anyone.’

I think I actually laughed when I heard it. I was standing in the reception of a building I was just then discovering was the former site of the Nicaraguan Embassy in London, having made an hour and a half journey to Kensington to deliver a letter calling for the release of Protestant Pastor Efren Antonio Vílchez López.

From the way the receptionist explained it I got the sense that this sort of thing had happened before, which lessened but did not entirely eliminate the embarrassment on my part. Some frantic Googling revealed that while, yes, there were some mentions of the closure online – particularly if you added ‘closed’ to your search terms – most results listed the address as the building I was now standing disgruntledly outside, with the panel that pops up when you search for these things still listing its opening hours as 11am-4pm Monday to Friday.

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