King’s Students Join Faith Leaders and Politicians at Westminster for Launch of Religious Freedom Report

Catholic non-profit organisation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) launched their ‘Religious Freedom in the World Report 2025’ on 21 October in the Houses of Parliament, documenting religious freedom across 196 countries. 

The event was hosted at Westminster by Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber. 

Among those attending the launch event in Parliament were members of KCL’s recently founded Freedom of Religion and Belief Society (KCL FoRB).

Introducing the report, which has been published biennially since 1999, O’Hara criticised the “pigeonholing” of violations of freedom of religion as being “different, unique” or “too complicated”. 

“Violations of [freedom of religious belief] are usually a bellwether of pending atrocities, and even genocide,” he continued.

“It is incumbent on governments, politicians, and even religious communities to treat violations of religious freedom as any other human rights offence.”

The 2025 report showed that almost two-thirds of humanity – over 5.4 billion people – live in countries in which serious violations of religious freedom occur. 

24 of the countries included in the report are categorised as facing persecution, the most severe category of the ANC’s scale for measuring religious freedom, entailing oppression or violent suppression. 

38 more countries were noted under the category of discrimination, which includes legal and social pressures which undermine freedom to exercise faith. 

ANC stated that these countries account for 64.7% of the global population, posing that the greatest threat to religious freedom is authoritarianism, with regimes using the means of surveillance, restrictive laws and suppression of dissent to control religious expression. 

A special guest at the event, Bishop John Bakeni of Diocese of Maiduguri, North-Eastern Nigeria addressed the ongoing attacks against Christians in Nigeria, stating that the “escalation of conflict in Nigeria in recent years [marks] some of the worst atrocities on churchgoers anywhere in the world.”

He continued, “There has been mass terror on civilians, killing over 40,000 Nigerians, kidnapping thousands, and displacing over 2 million people.” 

Deutsche Welle (DW) recently reported on the crisis, observing that “social media influencers, public figures and local and international faith-based organisations are amplifying claims of a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, citing US Senator, Ted Cruz’s claim on X that Nigerian officials are enabling “the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.”

Samuel Malik, a senior researcher at the pan-African think tank Good Governance Africa, told DW, “There is no credible evidence of a state-led or coordinated campaign to exterminate Christians, which is what genocide is,” arguing that the use of the term ‘genocide’ pushes moralistic foreign engagement with Nigeria, rather than promoting evidence-based engagement. 

Elaborating on the denotation of a ‘Christian genocide’, Bakeni claimed, “While this conflict is not solely about religion, it is equally simplistic not to see the religious dimension as a significant contributory factor.

“These groups have insistently terrorised many communities, wiping some from existence. These attacks assume genocidal character.” 

Bakeni elaborated, “I want to be very clear in my assessment of this: in Nigeria as a whole, there is not a genocide taking place against the Christian population.

“However, in certain areas, the violence is genocidal in nature and design to remove a Christian population from their land.” 

Speaking to Roar, Bakeni held, “The international community and the international media doesn’t know what’s happening.”

ANC further reported that religious persecution is an overlooked cause of migration. 

The report also detailed a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes surging globally following the October 2023 Hamas attack, with Europe, North America and Latin America seeing sharp rises, particularly in France and Germany.

Regarding the potential influence their identity as a Catholic charity may have on the objectivity of their research findings, John Pontifex of ANC told Roar, “We have more than 40 researchers across academia, journalism and the religious sphere… Who come with a standard of rigour in line with governmental research.

“Obviously we come at it from a Catholic perspective, but we seek to show non-partiality and not favour shining a light on one group facing persecution over another.” 

Following the event, KCL FoRB members reflected on how the report’s findings relate to their own work in promoting religious freedom within academic settings.

Eshat Kabir, Human Rights Envoy for KCL FoRB, told Roar:

“As a society we are committed to promoting dialogue, understanding, and the defence of freedom of religion or belief for all. We were encouraged by the work presented in the report, as it offers an insightful lens for religious advocacy.

“We were also encouraged by the continued advocacy Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) provides for those persecuted and the marginalised groups. We extend our appreciation to ACN for their commitment to raising awareness of this vital issue, and we look forward to continuing to engage with partners and students in exploring how academic communities can contribute to advancing this fundamental human right.”