Religious organizations in the US defended a loophole allowing clergy not to report child abuse cases. In 2020, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City heavily opposed House Bill 90 (HB90) in Utah.
The Catholic church argued that the “bill would violate the confidentiality of the confessional seal.” In February, the Catholic church gathered 9,000 signed letters from its parishioners and sent them to Rep. Angela Romero, the bill’s author.
A bill to amend the existing anti-conversion law was passed in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in India on August 12. According to the new legislation, the punishment for forcibly converting would be increased from seven to ten years. The bill also defines "mass conversions" and forbids them.
On August 31, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released its “Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China.”
In 2017, the UN started receiving allegations of abuse from non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and media outlets, prompting the investigation. Since then, numerous research reports have been published alleging arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and forced sterilizations, forced labor, and other ill-treatment of up to a million people.
A former Rajasthan legislator of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been caught on camera gloating over the deaths of at least five Muslims who were reportedly lynched for cow slaughter or cow smuggling in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.
A Texas school district is in a rush to remove certain books from the school library after a decision made by administrators required a review of certain books before the start of the school year.
A member of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was arrested on August 23rd. Police arrested the politician under the Preventive Detention Act and charged him with "habitually delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches."
Continuing the crackdown on women, Iran’s Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has released a 119-page document outlining new rules women must now observe.
IranWire called the new order, titled Hijab and Chastity Project, unhinged, calling out its most important goal: "cleansing society of the pollution caused by nonconformance with Islamic dress codes."
Ungodly and not in line with Lebanese customs – these are some of the reasons why security forces have cracked down on various LGBTQ community groups and the events they hold.
LGBTQ-friendly events, according to the Interior Ministry in its statement on June 24, “violate our society’s customs and traditions, and contradict with the principles of the Abrahamic religions.”
An honor-based family murder in a small town in the Fars province of Iran has once again sparked debates on the lack of laws to prevent “honor-killing” in Iran.
On June 27, the father of Ariana Lashkari shot the sixteen-year-old girl in the chest with a hunting rifle for allegedly laughing with a boy at a park, which he considered a disgrace to the family.
A 70-year-old man and two other gay men were sentenced to death by stoning in Bauchi, Nigeria. The accused were charged and convicted for engaging in acts of homosexuality. They were arrested by the religious police force of the state on June 14.
