Religion Briefs : U.N. Report Cites Seven Nations for Persecution
A United Nations special investigator said in Geneva that he has received reports of religious persecution in seven countries, including the killing of hundreds of worshipers in Iran and Albania.
Angelo Vidal d’Almeida Ribeiro of Portugal prepared a 28-page report for the U.N. Human Rights Commission, based on information from human rights and minority religious groups and talks with Vatican officials. The commission is nearing the midpoint of its annual 6-week session in Geneva.
Ribeiro listed seven countries that allegedly violate religious freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Albania, Bulgaria, Burundi, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and the Soviet Union. Three of the seven, Iran, Pakistan and Albania, failed to reply to his request for information.
Regarding Stalinist Albania--which has banned religious worship--he listed allegations of “the killing of hundreds of priests and believers.”
In Iran, more than 200 members of the Baha’i religion have reportedly been killed since the 1978 revolution and Baha’i holy places and religious sites have been seized, Ribeiro said.
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