On 4 July – Independence Day for the United States of America – the first Westminster Hall debate of the new UK Parliament was held on the topic of the role of UK embassies and Christian persecution.
DUP MP Jim Shannon led the debate, which was about ‘the right to religious freedom and how the House can best help achieve that’.
He said that the work of embassies and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be made ‘much more difficult – if not impossible’ unless the role of religion is recognised and freedom of belief promoted.
‘The roles of the Minister and our Government are at the crux of the debate’, he said. Mr Shannon called on the government ‘to ensure that UK embassies are resourced to have a human rights focus incorporated in the work of the embassy and, specifically, to report and monitor on freedom of religion or belief’.
Need for clarity
MPs from across the political spectrum spoke during the debate about democracy, human rights and the need for freedom of religion across the world.
During the debate, Christian MP Fiona Bruce pointed out that the Department for International Development ‘needs to follow the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s lead in addressing the human rights issue of freedom of religion and belief in a much clearer, more comprehensive and structured manner than it has done to date’.
Particular concerns
The Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field MP said at the end of the debate that he is particularly concerned about the plight of Christians in Burma, Iraq and Syria, and that the UK Government remains determined to promote and defend human rights more generally. Failure to do so has an impact on Christian and other religious minorities.’
