WORSENS, IMPUNITY INCREASES

• Religious persecution has increased – in 47 of the most dangerous countries the situation has worsened

• Acceleration and concentration of threats to the faithful in all regions of the world

• Impunity is on the rise – in 36 countries attackers are rarely or never prosecuted

The RFR has been published by international Catholic foundation ACN every two years since 1999 and is the only non-Governmental report on global religious freedom that covers all faiths.

The fundamental human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is violated in one out of every three countries (31%), which is to say in 61 out of 196 nations. In total, almost 4.9 billion people, or 62% of the world’s population, live in countries where religious freedom is heavily restricted.

The 2023 Religious Freedom in the World Report (RFR), published on 22 June by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), underlines the accelerating threats and trends against this right, revealing that persecution on grounds of faith has worsened overall, and impunity has increased.

The study covers the period between January 2021 and December 2022, and is the only non-governmental report that analyses compliance and violations worldwide, for all religions, of the right as laid out in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The report finds that discrimination and persecution are clearly noticeable in 61 countries, and that in 49 of these it is the government that persecutes or even murders its own citizens on religious grounds with scarcely a reaction from the international community. Even majority religious communities are now under threat.