Resources: Religious Freedom Issues

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Egil Lothe: “Unethical Conversions?” An Analysis of Missionary Activities in Relation to Ethics and Human Rights  Buddhists in many Asian countries have in recent years become the target of missionary activities aimed at making them abandon their religion in favour of religions such as Christianity. These activities have in many cases been described as unethical, being seen as coercive and manipulative. Although unethical practices have been reported from many Buddhist countries there seems to be a lack of systematic studies regarding the criteria that define missionary practises as unethical. In the present paper these criteria will be explored. The issue of the extent to which missionary practises are protected by the conventions on human rights of the United Nations will also to be explored. The rights of those targeted by missionaries seem to have been less discussed than the rights of the missionaries. More emphasis to the situation of those targeted by missionaries has therefore been given in the present paper.

Working inter-religiously on inter-religious problems: Buddhist-Christian-Muslim delegation in Sri Lanka   A fact finding mission to Sri Lanka (2006) was part of the project on Mission and Human Rights by the “Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief “. The mission to Sri Lanka had the following members: Senaid Kobilica (Islamic Council of Norway), Egil Lothe (Buddhist Federation of Norway) and Vebjørn Horsfjord (Church of Norway)

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