Persecution of Christians around the globe has “considerably worsened” over the previous 12 months, a human rights charity has warned.
In a report launched this week, Assist to the Church in Want mentioned Christians live underneath elevated risk of violence, discrimination and different human rights abuses.
The report analyzed knowledge from 18 international locations of explicit concern between the summer time of 2022 and the summer time of 2024. Key findings embody a shift within the epicenter of militant Islamist violence from the Center East to Africa, with Christians being “terrorized” by “excessive violence” for his or her religion. in locations like Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Authoritarian regimes resembling China, Eritrea, India and Iran have develop into extra repressive, resulting in elevated concentrating on of Christians as enemies of the state or their native communities.
Christian kids, particularly ladies, reside at elevated threat of abduction, sexual violence, pressured marriage and compelled conversion.
In some locations, Christians are caught up in weaponizing laws to criminalize acts deemed disrespectful of the state faith.
Christians are imprisoned for his or her religion in quite a lot of international locations, together with Eritrea, the place some 400 folks have been jailed with out trial. In Iran, the variety of Christians detained for his or her religion rose from 59 in 2021 to 166 in 2023. Estimates of the variety of Christians imprisoned in China vary from the low 1000’s to round 10,000.
India noticed a rise in reported assaults and different persecution of Christians, from 599 in 2022 to 720 the next 12 months.
In Myanmar, the navy has been accused of destroying greater than 200 locations of worship, together with 85 church buildings.
In some international locations, years of persecution and typically battle have led to an exodus of Christians. It’s estimated that solely 1 / 4 of one million Christians stay in Syria, in comparison with greater than 1.5 million in 2011 earlier than the civil warfare broke out.
In Iraq, the Christian inhabitants has shrunk from round one million 20 years in the past to lower than 200,000 right this moment.
The report, tabled in Parliament this week, mentioned: “The mass migration of Christian communities, triggered by Islamist militant assaults, has destabilized and disenfranchised them, elevating questions concerning the long-term survival of the church in key areas.”
It additionally states: “Authoritarian regimes, together with these in China, Eritrea, India and Iran, have intensified repressive measures in opposition to Christians, whether or not within the identify of non secular nationalism or state secularism/communism.
“Restrictions included more durable penalties for alleged insults to state ideology, confiscation of locations of worship, elevated arrests of clergy and laity, and longer detention durations.”
