On Feb. 5, The Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, received a letter, signed by 15 U.S. congressmen, asking that Sri Lanka shelve proposed legislation outlawing religious conversion. The letter was organized by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) with the help of the Becket Fund.
"We believe that this proposed legislation will harm, not protect, the freedom of religion of the Sri Lankan people," wrote the signers, who represent both political parties. "This anti-conversion bill is overbroad and targets all religious conversions, not just 'unethical conversions.'"
The proposed bill calls for fines up to 500,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($4,425) and up to seven years in prison for trying to convert a Sri Lankan citizen from one religion to another by using "force, fraud or allurement." The harshest punishments are reserved for those convicted of converting women or children.
"The right to worship as dictated by one's conscience is a basic fundamental human right, and one that is the foundation of any truly free society," said Rep. Akin.
The Sri Lankan ambassador received an almost identical letter, signed by 20 human rights activists representing Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Baha'i, and interfaith organizations, last week. Angela Wu, representing the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, signed that letter. Also, four members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) signed that letter.
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Hasson-Goodrich Op-Ed: Does Obama respect conscience?
Published in the Commentary section of the Washington Times 1/11/09.
Luke Goodrich, Legal Counsel
The Bush administration last month announced a new regulation protecting health-care providers who refuse to perform abortions or other medical procedures that violate their conscience.
Pro-choice groups have cried foul, arguing that the last-minute regulation is a politically motivated attack on a woman's right to choose and will restrict women's access to abortion and contraceptives. The incoming Obama administration has signaled it wants to repeal the rule.
That would be a mistake. Lost in the pro- and anti-abortion debate is the fact that this regulation allows a health-care provider to opt out of a procedure for one, and only one, reason - that the procedure would violate their conscience.
Protections for conscience have a long and storied history in American law, from protections for conscientious objectors in wartime, to laws that allow prison doctors to opt out of administering lethal injections. This history demonstrates a simple truth - it is wrong to force anyone to violate his or her conscience.
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Geneva Summit Tackles Durban II, Racism and Genocide
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, in coalition with nearly 30 international human rights organizations is hosting the Geneva Summit for Democracy, Tolerance and Human Rights on April 19.
The one-day summit will bring together some of the world's best known dissidents, intellectuals, and human rights activists to explore ways to combat racism and genocide on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention. The conference will take place in Geneva, on the eve of the U.N. Durban Review conference, in which U.N. delegations take up the issue of racism.
The Geneva Summit was called, in part, because the previous U.N. conference on this issue, which took place in Durban, South Africa in 2001, was roundly criticized for becoming a platform for anti-Semitism.
"The U.N. Defamation of Religion resolution, which passes each year in the General Assembly, is in fact an assault on peaceful religious free speech and an insidious wolf in sheep's clothing," said Bennett Graham, international programs officer at the Becket Fund. "This conference is the first time that the 'defamation of religion' issue has come under such high-profile scrutiny, and it is before the world's leading human rights organizations. This movement to create international anti-blasphemy laws, in the guise of protecting religion, needs to be stopped."
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Jews, Catholics, and Protestants Ask High Court to Uphold Prop 8
Eric Rassbach,
National Litigation
Director
A coalition of national and California religious organizations from the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant faiths filed an amicus brief January 15, 2009, asking the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty drafted the coalition brief. It was filed in Sacramento on behalf of the California Catholic Conference, the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America."There are many fundamental rights and interests at stake in the debate over same-sex marriage," said Eric Rassbach, national litigation director at the Becket Fund, a Washington-based civil rights law firm dedicated to defending the rights of all religious believers. "Those rights and interests can best be balanced if the political process is allowed to continue. If the Court instead overturns Proposition 8, it sets the stage to gridlock California courts with hundreds, even thousands, of legal challenges and decades of societal rancor and legal strife."
"We have an opportunity here to reason, debate, and negotiate our way to a place where the civil rights of both gays and lesbians and religious people are recognized and respected," said Mr. Rassbach. "But not if the court steps in and freezes the debate, forcing each side to assume an entrenched position."
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Hasson Addresses Texas Federalist Society Chapters
Hasson
Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson, Founder and President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, addressed Federalist Society Chapters this week (Feb. 11-12) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth, and the University of Texas in Austin.
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The Becket Fund in the news
* Sri Lanka - The Becket Fund appeared in the following stories on our efforts against the proposed anti-conversion law in Sri Lanka:
US News and World Report,
Washington Times, the
Daily Mirror, the
Lanka Sun,
PeaceMuslims.org, the
Christian Post,
Spero News, and
Religion Clause.
* Amish Sue Morristown - The Becket Fund appeared in the following stories on the Amish case:
WWNYTV.net (FOX-28),
Watertown Daily Times, and the
Valley News.
* Atheist Law Suit - The Becket Fund appeared in the
DC Examiner in a story about the failure of Michael Newdow's lawsuit to remove any mention of God from the innauguration.
* Same-Sex Marriage - The Becket fund appeared in the following stories on the continuing legal battles surrounding the passage of Proposition 8 in California:
Il Sussidiario (Italy),
Catholic News Agency,
California Catholic Daily, and
Catholic News Agency (again).
* Sikh Sues IRS - The Becket Fund appeared in
IndiaWest.com and the
India Journal about our part in the case
Tagore v. United States.
