The Catholic Union met officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to talk about the Government’s work on freedom of religion or belief.
Catholic Union Director, Nigel Parker, and Deputy Director, James Somerville-Meikle, met the Head of the Freedom of Religion or Belief team at the FCDO on Tuesday 28 February.
The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss progress in implementing the recommendations from the Bishop of Truro’s report into Christian persecution, which found over 250 million people faced persecution because of their Christian faith.
While some recommendations in the report have now been implemented in full, other recommendations are proving more difficult.
Nigel and James discussed the challenges involved in securing a UN Security Council Resolution on supporting Christians in the Middle East, as well as the on-going need to improve religious literacy and understanding of FCDO staff.
They also discussed the challenges involved in linking UK aid to metrics on freedom of religion or belief, which has been suggested for countries such as Pakistan and Nigeria.
The Catholic Union contributed to the Truro review, and has been working with other groups to ensure that the 22 recommendations of the report are fully implemented.
In 2022 the Catholic Union joined the FoRB Forum to work more closely with other groups and individuals promoting freedom of religion or belief.