by Georgia L Gilholy, The Critic
We cannot sit idly by as millions of Christians are suffering for their faith
Aid to the Church in Need recently launched the first-ever global campaign to uphold Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The article states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Sadly, a right on paper and a right in practice are two very different things.
According to ACN’s latest report, some 5.4 billion people — almost two-thirds of humanity — live in 62 countries where persecution, oppression, and discrimination are perpetrated by their own government or extremist groups. Some 80 per cent of the global violence against faith groups is directed against Christians.
This level of persecution is rarely discussed in the mainstream. In fact, there is even an online trend of mocking the idea that Christians might be “persecuted” whatsoever. This is a glaring “blind spot” in our policy and public life, which is in desperate need of correction.
Obviously there are major limitations to any petition-based campaigns, but ACN’s instincts make sense. Raising the profile of pressing moral issues in public, alongside behind-the-scenes lobbying, is worthwhile in itself. Take the example of the bid to free Soviet Jewish “Refuseniks”, whose 1987 Freedom Sunday rally, was the largest ever organised in the United States on behalf of a Jewish cause. This righteous campaign was highly successful due to a number of factors, but a huge public mobilisation was certainly part of it. Governments are unlikely to face pressure to act on abuses their own populations are simply not aware of. Sometimes, for better or for worse, public embarrassment helps.
Still, “embarrassing” is an overgenerous descriptor for Britain’s approach to the world’s Christians in 2026.