Strasbourg, 2 April 2025
Co-Chair of the EPP Working Group on Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue, Željana Zovko, organized a roundtable discussion on “Human rights and democracy in the world: addressing the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in Syria and Congo” in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The working group exchanged views with distinguished speakers, including Gaetan Roy, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Worldwide Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Aymeric Fuseau, Head of International Affairs at L’Oeuvre d’Orient and Vincent Gelot, Director of Middle-East at L’Oeuvre d’Orient.
The participants emphasized the dire situation of Christians in Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo that are targeted simply for their faith. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Christians are facing persecution and killings by extremist groups such as the Allied Democratic Forces. Islamists attacks against Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have intensified in recent months.
In Syria, the Christian community has decreased by 70% since 2011, as emphasised by Vincent Gelot. There, Christians have been persecuted for years, especially by Daesh. Despite their active participation in the creation of local organizations focusing on humanitarian aid and women empowerment, Christians are highly concerned about their future in Syria. Vincent Gelot therefore stressed the need to work at the European level to include in the list of criteria of vulnerability communities at risk of disappearing. He also pointed out the increasing number of minorities, especially Alawites, coming from Syria and moving to Lebanon over the last few weeks.
Moreover, Zovko and Gaetan Roy insisted on the need to give the Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief the means and staffing to carry out his mission. They also stressed the need to empower the EEAS with religious competencies in order to include religion in the solution of conflicts. In this regard, Zovko stated that the EEAS must use interreligious dialogue as a tool of preventive diplomacy, as she had emphasised in her report on preventive diplomacy during the last mandate.