Coalition for Religious Freedom Update, September 9, 2011

Victory in Thailand. We have won an important religious freedom victory in Thailand. In a case that began more than 20 years ago, the Supreme Court of Thailand finally acquitted Dr. Lek Thaveetermsakul, secretary-general of the Thai UPF, and several others. They had been accused of major crimes, ranging from trying to overthrow the government to racketeering and breaking up families. During 1991-1993, nine UC members were jailed on these charges, including Dr. Lek and his wife, without the normal option for bail. In 1993, a court ruled to allow bail and the members were released for the remainder of their trial. There was never a guilty verdict against them, but the prosecutors appealed at every level whenever the members were acquitted. As a result of the charges, Rev. and Mrs. Moon could not enter the country, since they were named in the original list of defendants. According to a press report announcing the recent Supreme Court ruling, Dr. Lek said he was “happy that justice was finally served.”

ICRF began consulting with the Thai movement on the case in 2004. We send our congratulations to Dr. Lek and the Thai movement for this major victory. We only wish it could have come sooner. The case shows that justice can come when we persevere.

Media Publicity. Ice Production Network, a Chinese- American television station, has broadcast a report about the WFWP event on religious freedom, including a good interview with Mrs. Ichiko Sudo on the issue of human rights in Japan. You can see the interview by reporter Lilie Greene here http://www.icepn.com/tv/channels/news/news- express/2011/08/15/women-federation-for-world- peace-2011-conference-2.html .

Ichiko Sudo’s segment begins at minute 11:40. Our victim’s association president, Luke Higuchi also gave a short testimony about his ordeal. Congratulations to Ichiko and Luke for a job well done!

FOREF. Peter Zoehrer and his European religious freedom group FOREF are to be congratulated for their new book publication: Religiöse Diskriminierung im säkularen Staat - Eine Einleitung (“Religious Discrimination in the Secular State: an Introduction”) edited by FOREF president Dr. Christian Brünner, professor of public law at the University of Graz. The publication is an outgrowth of FOREF’s excellent academic conference on

“Religious Discrimination in Select European Countries,” held last year at the University of Graz. FOREF is establishing itself as a respected organization with an impressive list of leading European scholars on its board.

Human Rights Without Frontiers president Willy Fautre arrived in Japan the last week of August to conduct research for an independent report on human rights violations there, especially the issue of kidnapping and forced conversion of Unification Church members and other religious minorities. He has interviewed dozens of witnesses and is working “around the clock” on his report.

Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) is a non-profit organization based in Brussels, Belgium. It has branch offices in China, the USA and Nepal, as well as its associate member groups in Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Japan, Russia and South Korea. HRWF has established a notable track record of authoritative expert reports and policy papers. Some of its recent work includes:

 European Union Policy on North Korea (2011)  FRECRIS [anti-sect group] and Religious Liberty (2011)  Freedom of Expression in Kazakhstan (2010)  Misuse of the Law on Extremism in Russia (2010)  Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation (2010)  The Burqa Issue in the EU (2010)  Anti-sect Movements in Belgium (2010)  Anti-Semitism in Ukraine (2010)

County Reports. ICRF’s award-winning web site (religiousfreedom.com) has developed a rating system, shown on right. More than 120 country reports have been updated so far and we expect to have all countries in our “World Report” section updated within two months. Thanks to our webmaster, David Payer, for his help in designing the star-ratings, and to our interns and staff editors for their good work in updating the reports. Team member Ray Mas is currently training to take over some of the day-to- day work on the web site. We are hoping to make the site increasingly active, and to increase its coverage of non-UC issues, while continuing to highlight the Japan human rights issue as a central focus.

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