Human Rights Day 2016: Statement by HG Bishop Angaelos

Dec 10, 2016 by

Statement by His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom

10 December 2016

As another year draws to a close and we mark Human Rights Day 2016, the importance of the sanctity of every human life remains challenged in far too many places in our world. This is despite various charters and conventions put in place to safeguard the lives of all. While humanity is seen to be rapidly advancing in many areas we are, as a global community, guilty of neglecting and even forsaking basic God-given rights and freedoms which were bestowed indiscriminately upon all; rights that must continue to underpin our values and choices if we seek to preserve justice, peace and freedom.

Human Rights Day commemorates the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[1] in 1948, which set out to provide a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations to be universally protected.

Among the various safeguards outlined in the Charter, yet clearly still violated across our world today, is Article 3, which states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” This is sadly in stark contrast to the way in which many are forced to exist in parts of our world. Likewise, Article 14 outlines that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution,” a right now threatened by vast global displacement that has in part resulted from the overlooking of gross human rights violations over decades against those who now seek refuge. On the matter of Religious Freedom in particular, Article 18, a right still grossly violated in many countries states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” This of course is starkly different from the reality that 5.3 billion people, representing 76% of the world’s population, live in countries with a high or very high level of restrictions on religion[2]. Other articles within the Charter deal with education, legal representation, quality of life, and other key issues, yet how many of the countries that subscribe to this charter truly abide by it in its entirety?

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