BITTER WINTER

Willy Fautré

“Not in My Name”. Why Even Atheists Should Defend Believers

“Not in My Name”. Why Even Atheists Should Defend Believers

Mr. Willy Fautré, co-founder and director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, and Associate Editor of Bitter Winter, delivered the following text, illustrated with slides from pictures of persecution published by Bitter Winter, during the seminar Freedom of Religion in China organized at the European Parliament in Brussels by Mr. Bastiaan Belder, Dutch representative for the European Conservative and Reformists Group (ECR), Mr. Christian Dan Preda, Romanian representative for the European People’s Party (EPP), and Mr. Josef Weidenholser, Austrian representative for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

Willy Fautré

Willy Fautré, former chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and at the Belgian Parliament. He is the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, an NGO based in Brussels that he founded in 1988. His organization defends human rights in general but also the rights of persons belonging to historical religions, non-traditional and new religious movements. It is apolitical and independent from any religion. He has carried out fact-finding missions on human rights and religious freedom in more than 25 countries He is a lecturer in universities in the field of religious freedom and human rights. He has published many articles in university journals about relations between state and religions. He organizes conferences at the European Parliament, including on freedom of religion or belief in China. For years, he has developed religious freedom advocacy in European institutions, at the OSCE and at the UN.