FoRB in Full

With echoes of ‘the most difficult time in North Korean history’, the international community must do more to bring about change

Posted on 29/06/2023 by cswpress in Asia, North Korea

Earlier this month, the BBC released information gathered from exclusive interviews with three individuals living inside North Korea. Their reports have brought the country back into the headlines, revealing the devastating reality of the situation for North Korean citizens since the COVID-19-triggered border closure in January 2020. They describe widespread starvation and brutal repression, without feasible means of escape.

Hanna Song from the North Korean Database Centre for Human Rights (NKDB) said in an interview with the BBC ‘This [report] takes us back to the most difficult time in North Korean history.’

Song is referring here to the widespread famine of the 1990s known as the arduous march.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded in 1948 under the leadership of Kim Il-Sung. The communist nation’s economy was built on a system of state control: a public distribution system for food and material goods, and a state-assigned job system dictating citizen employment.

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Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson, one of Myanmar/Burma’s most senior and internationally renowned Christian pastors.

El hecho de que el Reverendo Dr. Hkalam Samson continue en la cárcel es una prueba de que nadie está a salvo en Myanmar

Posted on 28/06/2023 by cswpress in Asia ES, español, Myanmar ES

Por Benedict Rogers

Cuando escuché que mi amigo el Reverendo Dr. Hkalam Samson, uno de los pastores cristianos más importantes e internacionalmente reconocidos de Myanmar/Birmania, había sido arrestado en el aeropuerto de Mandalay el 5 de diciembre cuando intentaba viajar a Bangkok, varios pensamientos pasaron por mi mente.

En un principio, no me sorprendió, porque la actual junta militar ilegal, que tomó el poder en un golpe de Estado el 1 de febrero de 2021, ha sido aún más brutal, despiadada e inhumana que cualquiera de las sucesiones de dictaduras militares que han gobernado Myanmar durante la mayor parte de las últimas seis décadas.

Por otro lado, debido a sus conexiones internacionales, pensé que su arresto podría simplemente conducir a una breve detención, con fines de interrogatorio. Esperaba que fuera liberado en cuestión de días. Este es un hombre, después de todo, que se ha reunido con el Presidente de los Estados Unidos en la Casa Blanca, o con un Ministro de Estado en la Oficina de Relaciones Exteriores, Commonwealth y Desarrollo del Reino Unido, parlamentarios de todo el mundo y ha asistido a foros internacionales, incluida la Conferencia Ministerial Internacional sobre Libertad de Religión o Creencia en Washington, DC en 2019.

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The continued imprisonment of Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson is proof that no one is safe in Myanmar

Posted on 27/06/2023 by cswpress in Asia, Burma

By Benedict Rogers

When I heard that my friend Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson, one of Myanmar/Burma’s most senior and internationally renowned Christian pastors, had been arrested at Mandalay airport on 5 December as he attempted to travel to Bangkok, several thoughts went through my mind.

On one level I was not surprised, because the current illegal military junta, which seized power in a coup on 1 February 2021, has been even more brutal, ruthless and inhumane than any of the succession of military dictatorships that have ruled Myanmar for most of the past six decades.

On another level, due to his international connections, I thought his arrest might simply lead to a brief detention, for the purposes of interrogation. I half expected him to be released within a matter of days. This is a man, after all, who has met the President of the United States in the White House, a Minister of State in the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, parliamentarians around the world and has attended international fora including the International Ministerial Conference on freedom of religion or belief in Washington, DC in 2019.

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Former governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai with current Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.

We must not let Nigeria slide any further into failed statehood

Posted on 14/06/2023 by cswpress in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa

‘Of course, we do consider religion, but I would not tell them that…’. It seems that Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Nigeria’s Kaduna State from May 2015 until May 2023, is no longer hiding his biases.

Addressing a group of Muslim clerics on his penultimate day in office after his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the Kaduna State gubernatorial election, El-Rufai spoke extensively about how the APC had capitalised on religion, including by running on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, to secure electoral victory.

‘What we are able to achieve in Kaduna, we’ve now achieved on the national level,’ he added – a reference to the controversial and disputed victory of the APC in the presidential elections in February this year, also via a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

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A sign prohibiting the entry of Protestants into the community of Cuamontax in Huazalingo Municipality of Hidalgo State, Mexico.

Revictimization in the search for a solution to conflicts related to religious freedom

Posted on 25/05/202315/09/2025 by cswpress in Latin America, Mexico

Uriel Badillo is a father of a family who has been affected by the lack of religious freedom in the community of Cuamontax in Huazalingo Municipality of Mexico’s Hidalgo State. His father Gilberto Badillo, a native of the community, converted to Christianity in 2009, and in 2010 he went public with his new faith before his community as he began to conduct Bible studies and invite people to his house.

The community prohibited these activities and placed a banner at the entrance to the village that explicitly said, ‘No entry to Evangelicals’, which remained until 2021. I had the opportunity to see it on a visit to the state of Hidalgo in 2020.

The majority religion in Cuamontax is Roman Catholic; they hold parties and celebrations for various saints during the year but the most important party in the area that lasts a week is “Xantolo”¹ (Day of the Dead) and all members of the community are required to participate physically and financially.

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