Heather Bellamy spoke with Paul Moynan, the Director of CARE for Europe

Paul Moynan

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved an important report tackling intolerance towards Christians in Europe in January. The report introduced by Moldovan MP Valeriu Ghiletchi, which Care for Europe supported from a very early stage, called particularly for a greater focus on reasonable accommodation for religious belief in Member States. To find out more about this Heather Bellamy spoke with Paul Moynan, the Director of CARE for Europe.

Heather: Moldovan MP Valeriu Ghiletchi introduced his report by saying that, "Today Christians face intolerance in Europe." So how big a problem is this across the 47 Member States?

Paul: It's interesting, because you wouldn't have thought that Christians would be the ones within Europe to be under fire in the workplace, or in the expression of their faith, but the very fact that this report needed to be written and researched and presented, highlighted that there is an ongoing issue where the fundamental human right for us to express our freedom of thought and freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, is being undermined in many countries. He chose the UK as one of his main areas of focus, which was quite interesting for me as a Brit, but not living in the UK, to see many of the case histories coming out of the UK where Christians have not had their human rights upheld within the law in the UK.

Heather: Is the UK worse for those sorts of things than other countries in Europe?

Paul: I think some of the UK law is more advanced in bringing these issues to a head, let me put it like that. I think when you are talking about street preachers, or you're talking about wearing religious symbols and things, it's not the UK only that is affected. Much of the report also came from the Netherlands where there was particular difficulty for Christians who were trying to home-school their children; one couple in Germany were even separated from their children just because they had been home-schooling - something that is not allowed in Germany. So while there is quite a lot of case law from the UK, I wouldn't necessarily say the UK is a worse place to be exercising your faith, but the laws certainly are further advanced in bringing these issues to a focus; maybe some would even say there's more restrictive laws in the UK than there are in other of the European countries.

Heather: During the debate Mr Szczerski from Poland said he thought the report was important to fight against 'Christianophobia', which sometimes is promoted in the name of modernization and Europeization. Do you agree with that?

Paul: Absolutely. I'm based in Brussels and one of the things we see regularly is a very strong anti-religious view, as though the secularist worldview is one of neutrality. Well, if you have a secular worldview, it is also a system of belief. This idea that you can drive out any reference to religion, or any authority and therefore produce a sort of neutral, free platform for everyone to exercise their thought is actually very deviant and leads to a very intolerant society. Even the use of the word 'tolerant' is usually used by some of our opponents to try and quieten us down, but actually, if you really are tolerant, then you are accepting of another person's viewpoint, living alongside them. It doesn't necessarily mean you endorse it or agree with their viewpoint. So tolerance is important, but it's not necessarily tolerance, the way the word is used in political debate.

Heather: So is the general feeling, in terms of 'Christianophobia' being linked to modernization, that Christianity should be left in the past and it isn't something that should be in our present and future?

Paul: I think there is a definite desire for that to be driven back by some who raise their voices in the different chambers of politics. But I think this report highlights the need for us to allow people to have that expression of their religion; this report tackles even those of a very small Christian minority. Bear in mind this is the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe, so it's not just the EU - if you think sort of Eurovision and wider, and so for some of these nations Christianity is definitely not the historical religion, so it's a real boost for those seeking to have their faith recognised and have the freedoms that maybe sometimes we have taken for granted in the past and which are becoming under threat for us in the future. It is a strong statement of the need for us to accept the right to have freedom of religion and conscience and belief.

Heather: Reasonable accommodation is a concept beginning to be discussed more and more. What does that look like in practice, do you think?

Paul: Lord Anderson in the debate, he helpfully described this as the, 'common sense view'. Reasonable accommodation is really, if there is a practical way that the service or good can be provided by somebody else, where that objection on the grounds of conscience is not going to be traversed, then that should happen. The registrar situation, for those wanting to have a same-sex union, that situation is very clear, another registrar can be found. Or somebody with bakeries and photographers and all these other ones that are coming up. I think we should be keen to push this back and say, this is the will of the Council of Europe; they are seeing that reasonable accommodation within the tolerance that we need in our society is vital, otherwise no-one is left with any right to differentiate their own thought, or to live their lives in a different way from the majority.

Heather: So what were the conclusions of this report? What exactly has been adopted by these Member States?

Paul: It's very positive because what happens from this assembly is the report has now become a motion that goes to the Council of Foreign Ministers. The 47 Foreign Ministers from around Europe who are part of the Council of Europe, will consider this and have to give a response. Effectively it will influence the laws that will be put into place in the future in those 47 Member States. Some of the key things are to guarantee the enjoyment by Christian minority groups of the right to publish and use religious literature. So here again, anybody can have the right to actually put their own pamphlets out, to distribute them on the streets without fear of prosecution just on the basis of it being Christian literature. Other things, obviously in this time of great violence, it's also urging for great measures to combat that violence and the intolerance of people of every faith, which obviously is absolutely appropriate at this time. Also to allow Christians to fully participate in public life. So, your faith is not being boxed into a small hour on a Sunday, but your faith is being released again to be able to inform all aspects of your life; in employment, in your leisure time, in your thought and the work that you produce. So it is a great freedom that I think is being reinforced again through this report.

Heather: You've previously said that this report makes it clear that people of faith should not be forced to act contrary to their beliefs. Will the adoption of this resolution make any difference in our courts when groups like Christian Institute and Christian Concern are supporting their Christian clients?

Paul: Absolutely and this is something that should be made known and be quoted in law courts and in every situation where some authoritative backup is required. It is not firm law, I mean none of the 47 Member States is immediately obliged to put this into their hard national law. But it definitely says that as co-signatories of the Council that they are beholden to follow this line of thinking. So definitely, Christian Institute, CARE, any of the other agencies who are out there working to try and encourage believers in their stand against a secularisation, should be able to draw on this. It's available on the internet, just look up 'Council of Europe' or assembly.coe.int and look up religious intolerance and you'll find a number of reports including this one.

Heather: Finally, do you foresee a time where this will be adopted in national law where it isn't at the moment?

Paul: The role of the Council is to inform. They see themselves as a dialogue environment, which will then inform and set the agenda for national laws. Obviously the UK law is free to choose, as you all will in a few weeks' time in the election; they're free to set their own laws, but at the same time if you are a member of a community like this, you are beholden to follow the will and the wish that is coming from, in this case from Strasbourg. So it may take a while to seep through, these things do; we've seen other ones passed against human trafficking and ones that are coming up against the fertility sector in terms of surrogacy and these things will take a long time, but hopefully they will inform the law makers in all of the national governments.