Building on Positive Developments in the Middle East and North Africa: Acknowledging Progress on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Identifying Further Steps and Opportunities

The Middle East and North Africa region is a hotbed of human rights violations and is one of the worst areas in the world when it comes to the right to religious freedom and the persecution of minority religious groups. It is right and important that much time is given to highlighting the crimes of perpetrators and challenging the lack of comprehensive responses to the crimes. However, it is also important to acknowledge places where there are signs of improvement to the religious freedom landscape and to identify opportunities to support and consolidate such developments for the common good of those communities and nations.

This online premiere features an event from the Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief held last month in London. The Religious Freedom Institute, in collaboration with REFCEMI, hosted a distinguished group of leading religious freedom proponents to discuss opportunities for promoting this fundamental human right in Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE

• His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos OBE, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London and Papal Legate to the United Kingdom, Founder and Director of Refcemi

• Dr. Tom Farr, President, Religious Freedom Institute

• Salah Ali, General Coordinator, Iraq Religious Freedom and Antidiscrimination Roundtable, Iraq

• Ghassen Ayari, Public Relations and Partnership Officer of the Attalaki NGO, Tunisia

• Dr. Nayla Tabbara, President, Adyan Foundation, Lebanon

• The Rt. Rev. Dr. Samy Fawzy Shehata, Anglican Archbishop of the Episcopal Province of Alexandria, Egypt

• Ewelina Ochab, Deputy Director, Refcemi

• Moderator: Jeremy P. Barker, Director, Middle East Action Team, Religious Freedom Institute