Standing with Persecuted Christians: Defending the Faith and Christian Values

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

At the outset, allow me to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Her Excellency Ms. Zsòfia Havasi, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations in Geneva, for organizing this event, and to all the participants.

Let me start with some figures. Almost 400 million Christians worldwide face persecution or violence, making them the most persecuted religious community in the world. This means that one in seven Christians is affected. Even worse, almost 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2025, which equates to an average of 13 per day. As Pope Leo XIV said, these figures show that religious freedom is “considered in many contexts more as a ‘privilege’ or concession rather than a fundamental human right.”[1]

For Christians, those who were killed for their faith are “martyrs” in the etymological sense of the word: “witnesses” to their creed who embody values that challenge the logic of power[2]. While from the perspective of international law, they are victims of outrageous human rights violations. Their testimony must not distract from the fundamental responsibility of States which should have protected them.

This is not a new concept. In the sixteenth century, Francisco de Vitoria, a Spanish Dominican friar widely acknowledged as the “putative father” of international law, “described the responsibility of governors to protect their citizens as an aspect of natural reason shared by all nations”[3]. This responsibility is now assumed by the State.

UN resolutions often state that human rights must be “respected, protected, and promoted.”

Indeed, a State must respect freedom of religion or belief and refrain from interfering with individual's or group’s ability to profess their faith privately or publicly through worship, practice and teaching.

It is the State’s duty to protect freedom of religion or belief, which includes preventing third parties from violating this right. This protection has to safeguard believers who are targeted, before, during and after an attack. However, impunity remains one of the most serious issues in the global landscape of religious persecution.

A State should promote freedom of religion or belief, first and above all because it is a fundamental human right.

Indeed, religious freedom is one of the absolute minimum requirements necessary for living with dignity. Not only was it historically the first human right to be recognised, it also touches the constitutive dimension of humanity: our relationship with our Creator.[4] Governments have a duty to respect, protect, and promote the religious freedom of their citizens. In the words of Pope Leo XIV, “The defence of religious freedom, then, cannot remain abstract; it must be lived, protected and promoted in the daily lives of individuals and communities.”[5]

It is deeply unjust and profoundly concerning that almost 400 million Christians are subjected to physical violence, subjugation, false detention, the expropriation of their property, enslavement, forced exile and even murder because of their religious beliefs. Such actions constitute serious violations of their human rights, including their right to freedom of religion.  

This scourge affects all countries. According to the OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Report, over 760 anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in Europe in 2024 alone, due to States’ submission. These included physical assaults, murders, vandalism of places of worship, desecration of cemeteries and arson attacks on churches.[6]

However, there are other, more subtle and often silent forms of persecution that are not easily captured by statistics. These include a kind of “polite persecution”, which often takes the form of discrimination through “gradual marginalization and exclusion from political, social and professional life, even in traditionally Christian lands”[7]. It also takes the form of more “discreet” restrictions and limitations, whereby legal norms and administrative practices effectively narrow or in fact annul the rights legally recognized to the predominantly Christian population[8], including in parts of Europe.

In Western countries in particular, human rights that are firmly enshrined in binding international instruments, such as freedom of religion or belief and freedom of opinion and expression (ICCPR articles 18 and 19, respectively), are sometimes overridden by competing interests or claims to so called “new rights”, the normative status of which is not established in any treaty or customary international law.

The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC)[9], using OSCE data and integrating them with other official statistics, has identified numerous violent incidents affecting Christians across Europe in recent years, amounting to a total of 2,211 cases in 2024. These include prosecutions for silent prayer near abortion facilities[10] or for quoting a Bible verse on social issues.[11] In some cases, parents or teachers were barred from reading the Bible to a child or a pupil.[12] Other Christians faced prosecution for peacefully expressing their religious beliefs or historic Christian teachings on issues related to sexual ethics.[13]

These are not superficial acts. They are serious violations of the rights of Christians, perpetrated by the very authorities who are charged with the duty of respecting, protecting and promoting the human rights of all. This contradiction must end.

In France a bill creating a so-called new right to euthanasia is currently being discussed in the Parliament. If approved as it stands, it would force  Christian hospitals and care homes to accept the practice of euthanasia in violation of the core religious principles and of the religious autonomy of the  religious congregations and institutions that run such establishments. The members of these congregations, like the Little Sisters of the Poor, could face a prison sentence and a significant financial fine. They might in addition loose access to public funding if they refuse to participate in the implementation of such law on euthanasia.  This threat could become a reality in a number of countries seeking to legalize euthanasia.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

As Pope Leo XIV stressed, “Many brothers and sisters, even today, carry the same cross as our Lord on account of their witness to the faith in difficult situations and hostile contexts: like him, they are persecuted, condemned and killed.”[14]

We started with a numeric figure, 400 million, representing the number of persecuted Christians. To conclude, I'd like to share one final thought, which is both symbolic and deeply concrete: the Cross.

The cross is formed by two intersecting lines: the vertical line represents human openness to transcendence, while the horizontal line symbolizes the human bond with others.

Attacks on Christians are attacks on the Cross itself.

Attacks on the vertical dimension seek to sever the relationship between conscience and God, confining faith to silence. When a Christian is forced to renounce or privatize their faith, it is not just a social restriction. It is a deliberate attempt to close the space in which the human spirit transcends itself.

Attacks against the horizontal dimension occur when Christians are persecuted, which deprives the human person of their innate capacity to respond freely to the call of truth. This leads to the gradual disintegration of the ethical and spiritual bonds that sustain communities, with trust giving way to fear and dialogue being replaced by suspicion and violence.[15]

As late Pope Francis observed in his last public message, “there can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.”[16]

Thank you for your attention.