• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / From the World / Op-eds Global

Religious Liberty and US Foreign Policy: No Longer the Guiding Principle?

04/03/2021Marco Respinti |

Freedom of religion has been recently placed by the U.S. at the top place in a hierarchy of human rights. This will change, announced Secretary Blinken.

by Marco Respinti

Secretary Blinken introducing the 45th annual report on human rights in the world.
Secretary Blinken introducing the 45th annual report on human rights in the world (credits).

On March 30, US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, announced what some saw as a fundamental change in American foreign policy. The US, Blinken said presenting the Department of State’s 45th annual report on human rights in the world, will “repudiate the unbalanced views” that placed religious liberty at the top of a hierarchy of human rights. “There is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others,” Blinken said.

Media saw it as a strong criticism of the precedent Administration, and of Blinken’s predecessor as Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who had repeated time and again that religious liberty was at the top of a hierarchical pyramid of human rights. Pompeo’s approach created the conditions for promoting the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, held twice in Washington, D.C. and a third time online due to COVID-19 (rather than in Warsaw, Poland as planned), accompanied by regional meetings, and the admirable work of Sam Brownback as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

Is really religious liberty just one among a myriad of other human rights, some of which may deserve more attention than freedom of religion or belief? I respectfully tend to disagree.

Surely, there are several human rights that must be protected and granted to all. It is much appreciated that a world power such as the US renews its commitment to put human rights and the top of its priorities in foreign policy. How different human rights stand with respect to each other is a debated philosophical question, but it also has very practical implications.

Particularly at a time when the list of human rights tends to constantly add new ones, they may enter into conflicts with each other, and trying to defend all of them in the same way may lead to intractable impasses. I believe that yes, some basic human rights are more basic that others: that is why we call them, etymologically, “fundamental,” i.e., foundational. They lay the foundation upon which others are erected. Others depend on them; they do not depend on others. They serve as a rationale, a paramount, and the ultimate criterion of evaluation and order.

The most basic human right is of course the right to life. A dead person does not have rights, and we only talk of human rights in relation to the living. Homicide is the most basic violation of human rights. But the first political human right is religious freedom, since it makes us free to address the most basic questions of human life, indeed the core premise of the human condition itself. This is neither a sectarian statement, nor an endorsement of faith as such. FORB (freedom of religion or belief) also protects the freedom not to believe. It grants humans the right to address the ultimate questions of human life without constraints, deciding “for” or “against” the existence of God, “for” or “against” any religion, or all of them. From this, all the rest comes. This first political human right stands at the foundation of all the others.

As American citizens, presumably Secretary Blinken and Secretary Pompeo agree on the fact that this principle is enshrined (the word is particularly appropriate) in the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment of the US Constitution, whose aim is to preserve individual and corporate liberty from any possible interference by the state. These documents indicate religious liberty as the first political human right of a US citizen. Immediately after, the First Amendment mentions the political rights to “freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” That of the human rights in the US Constitution is a crowded podium, but the golden medal is bestowed upon religious freedom.

I wonder whether a competent Ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom will be appointed again, and the Ministerials to Advance Religious Freedom will continue. The US have involved other countries, who have appointed their own Ambassadors-at-large for religious freedom following the American model, and have co-sponsored the Ministerials. It would be strange if the US, having incited other countries to co-operate, would now abandon them.

The March 30 Blinken speech accompanied the publication of a strong-worded report on human rights, which severely criticizes China, particularly for the genocide waged by the CCP against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Xinjiang, which its non-Han inhabitants call East Turkestan. Blinken assured the world that the strong US commitment on denouncing human rights abuses in China will continue. Even before being confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State, Blinken had publicly agreed with Pompeo to call “genocide” these CCP crimes.

This is good news, but one wonders whether the rights of Uyghurs and several other persecuted minorities in China and throughout the world will now be protected without references to the basically religious nature of the persecution vested on them. If this would be the case, misunderstandings on what the persecution is all about will be created and perpetuated, to the detriment of the very human rights Blinken vowed to defend.

Tagged With: Religious Liberty, United States of America

Marco Respinti
Marco Respinti

Marco Respinti is an Italian professional journalist, member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), essayist, translator, and lecturer. He has contributed and contributes to several journals and magazines both in print and online, both in Italy and abroad. Author of books and chapter in books, he has translated and/or edited works by, among others, Edmund Burke, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Russell Kirk, J.R.R. Tolkien, Régine Pernoud and Gustave Thibon. A Senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (a non-partisan, non-profit U.S. educational organization based in Mecosta, Michigan), he is also a founding member as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for European Renewal (a non-profit, non-partisan pan-European educational organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands). A member of the Advisory Council of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief, in December 2022, the Universal Peace Federation bestowed on him, among others, the title of Ambassador of Peace. From February 2018 to December 2022, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of International Family News. He serves as Director-in-Charge of the academic publication The Journal of CESNUR and Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights.

Related articles

  • « Maltraitance religieuse des enfants ». Une autre attaque contre la liberté religieuse au Japon. 2. « Maltraitance psychologique »

    « Maltraitance religieuse des enfants ». Une autre attaque contre la liberté religieuse au Japon. 2. « Maltraitance psychologique »

  • « Maltraitance religieuse des enfants ». Une autre attaque contre la liberté religieuse au Japon. 1. Une nouvelle notion de « maltraitance ».

    « Maltraitance religieuse des enfants ». Une autre attaque contre la liberté religieuse au Japon. 1. Une nouvelle notion de « maltraitance ».

  • “Religious Abuse of Children”: Another Assault Against Religious Liberty in Japan. 2. “Psychological abuse”

    “Religious Abuse of Children”: Another Assault Against Religious Liberty in Japan. 2. “Psychological abuse”

  • A Second Letter by 80+ Ukrainian Academics Urges President Macron to Stop French Support to the Anti-Cult Federation FECRIS

    A Second Letter by 80+ Ukrainian Academics Urges President Macron to Stop French Support to the Anti-Cult Federation FECRIS

Keep Reading

  • Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 4. Seeking a Theoretical Foundation for Freedom of Religion
    Benedict XVI and Religious Liberty. 4. Seeking a Theoretical Foundation for Freedom of Religion

    The German Pope’s argument for a theological and philosophical foundation of freedom of religion did not persuade everybody, but remains a crucial reference.

  • Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 1. An Ambiguous Text
    Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 1. An Ambiguous Text

    The Japanese Parliament has passed laws regarding as fraudulent donations motivated by “fear” and where the “free will” of the donors has allegedly been suppressed.

  • Une deuxième lettre de plus de 80 universitaires ukrainiens demande au Président Macron de mettre fin au soutien français à la fédération antisectes FECRIS
    Une deuxième lettre de plus de 80 universitaires ukrainiens demande au Président Macron de mettre fin au soutien français à la fédération antisectes FECRIS

    Les universitaires ukrainiens dénoncent également la présence au sein de l'agence gouvernementale antisectes MIVILUDES d’un homme politique qui a soutenu l'occupation russe de la Crimée.

  • Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 2. “Fear” and Religious Fraud
    Japan’s Religious Donations Law. 2. “Fear” and Religious Fraud

    The new law, by prohibiting donations based on “fear” of misfortunes in this or in the next life and on trust in “inspired” teachers, in fact looks with suspicion at all religions.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Blaming the Victims: The Hamburg Shooting and the Jehovah’s Witnesses by Massimo Introvigne
  • The Donnie Yen Fiasco: A Uyghur View by Rebiya Kadeer
  • Abduxaliq Uyghur, 1901–1933: Uyghurs Remember Their Beheaded Poet by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture by He Yuyan
  • The Suicide of the Pink-Haired Girl: How the CCP Exploited a Tragedy by Zhou Kexin
  • Second-Generation Unification Church Believers Discriminated in Japan. 1. A Tale of Two Petitions by Masumi Fukuda
  • Second-Generation Unification Church Believers Discriminated in Japan. 3. Media Slander Leads to Discrimination by Masumi Fukuda

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY