EU Directive on religious persecution

Discrimination is always an important issue in contemporary relationships. The reason for prejudice may be gender, skin color, sexual orientation and religion. Terrorist attacks further reinforced discrimination against Muslims. But not only Muslims are faced with intolerance. At the risk of similar attacks recently are also Christians. For this reason, public discussion was initiated about religious liberty.

Representatives from all European Union Member States have drawn attention to the issue of religious intolerance. Therefore, the Council of Europe has issued a formal declaration in which there were included concerns about the growing number of acts of religious-based violence, such as terrorist attacks in various countries of the world.

religious persecution

In a statement, was not mentioned in any way about the event that triggered the discussion within the ranks of the EU. And this was an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. Then, 21 of the faithful died, and over 100 were injured. Therefore, the ministers of Italy, France, Poland and Hungary sent a letter to the head of EU diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, about the use of more concrete actions and clearer wording on the extent and types of discrimination.

EU Directive about religious persecution is to remind one of the fundamental rights of the EU, which is freedom and freedom of religion without fear for safety. To this end, issues of religious persecution will be also discussed at meetings of the UN.

Originally, the text of the directive was accepted on 31 January 2011, but opposition of Frattini, Michele Alliot-Marie, and Radoslaw Sikorski has led to the inclusion of several amendments to the declaration, including in particular the selection problem of persecution of Christians by the followers of other religions.

October 2011