Sri Lanka poised to outlaw religious conversions

Mar 30, 2005

Becket Fund warns that tsunami aid is threatened

The government of Sri Lanka is poised to introduce a bill that would outlaw religious conversions in the island nation. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty warns that the law would jeopardize all religiously-affiliated tsunami relief aid now pouring in to the country.

The Becket Fund—a nonpartisan, interfaith, legal and educational institute dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—will raise the issue this week during an oral intervention under Item 10 and in a parallel session at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva on April 5. The Becket Fund, an NGO in consultative status with the UN, will hold the parallel meeting in conjunction with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

The bill, which the government has signaled it will introduce at the beginning of April, would subject faith-based aid providers to up to seven years in prison if accused of “attempted conversion” for aiding the needy while retaining their religious identities. With government support and calls for a conscience vote, passage of the bill is almost certain.

Buddhism is assured a “foremost place” in the Sri Lankan constitution and those practicing minority religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, have been violently targeted in the past. In a fact-finding mission in Sri Lanka last year, two Becket Fund attorneys met with pastors and religious believers who had been beaten and threatened with death because of their beliefs. Over the past two years, there have been over 160 incidents of violence and intimidation against religious minorities, including dozens of church burnings and desecrations.

“This law would jeopardize faith-based aid exactly when it’s needed most,” declared Becket Fund attorney Roger Severino. "Unfortunately, the campaign of threats and attacks against religious minorities has survived the tsunami and the proposed anti-conversion law would only encourage the religious persecution we’ve already seen in Sri Lanka.”

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has held that “the constitution does not recognize a fundamental right to propagate a religion” and that “the propagation and spreading of Christianity…would impair the very existence of Buddhism.”

Relevant Cases

• Sri Lanka -- Criminalizing Religious Conversion