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IARF Links to Related Websites

As part of the strategic planning process underway at the IARF Secretariat in Oxford, we have taken the time to review web sites that focus primarily on religious freedom issues. Dozens of web sites dealing with this subject now exist. While IARF does not necessarily endorse any of the following sites, nor take positions on their diverse content, we did find some especially useful sites that we thought were worth referring to our membership.

Please note that the list below does NOT include sites dealing with human rights in general, or with most interfaith initiatives. We have also excluded several U.S.-based sites dealing with religious liberty concerns.

United Nations :

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An important grassroots peace initiative is being conducted by civil society groups and individuals throughout the world. On 7 September 2001, the United Nations adopted a resolution designating 21 September of each year as an "International Day of Peace".

You can personally support this worldwide initiative by committing to conduct a spiritual observation and promulgating the Vigil idea among religious and peace-based groups in your community.

Please register your commitment on the International Day of Peace Vigil website at http://www.idpvigil.com/
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 The U.N. web site for freedom of religion can be found via the office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/hrissues.htm from this page go to "Religious Intolerance.
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 For a wealth of information on resources available for human rights education see http://www.unhchr.ch/hredu.nsf
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 A very good UNESCO site offering information about legal instruments around the world dealing with freedom of religion is at http://www.unesco.org/most/rr1.htm

Religious Freedom Research:

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An extensive research database on human rights with a link to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Human Rights Database on line www.hrni.org

* http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/ : An on-line libary on human rights sponsored by the University of Minnesota. Clicking on 'other links' will take you to subject topics like the freedom of religion or belief.
* Study Guide on Freedom of Religion or Belief:
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/studyguides/religion.html
* The Religion and Law Research Consortium (RLRC) is comprised of academic and government institutions dedicated to the study of law and religion. Website at http://www.religlaw.org/

General:

* "The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief monitors these issues on a world-wide basis. Their very thorough web site at http://www.oslocoalition.org/ includes reports from the U.N. and relevant documents. Clicking on "Country Analysis" will take you to maps of the world from where you can find the text of different countries’ Constitutions on this topic.
* One of the most popular sites on this topic is at http://www.religioustolerance.org/, a site maintained by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. It has good background information on different religions, as well as links to very extensive papers, essays, and bibliographies on the subject of religious tolerance.
* A Brussels-based site called Human Rights without Frontiers has produced country by country reports since 1997 on freedom of conscience and religion. This can be accessed via http://www.hrwf.net
* Amnesty International has only recently launched an Interfaith Network for Human Rights. The developing site is at http://www.amnestyusa.org/interfaith/index.html
* The People's Decade for Human Rights Education has a very good page explaining freedom of religion and belief. It is at http://www.pdhre.org/rights/religion.html

News:

* The Interfaith Newswire has access to press releases and links to religious web sites across the globe. It is at: http://www.humanitarian.net/interfaith/
* Religion News Service at http://www.religionnews.com/ contains news about religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues.
* Worldwide Faith News has a database of news releases and policy statements from world faith groups. They are at: http://www.wfn.org
* The International Coalition for Religious Freedom (http://www.religiousfreedom.com) -- affiliated with the Unification Church -- has a helpful link ("News") to the top international stories on religious freedom.
* Religion Newswriters Association (http://www.religionwriters.com) ReligionLink is a service for journalists, but also offers breaking news on religion stories.
* http://www3.baylor.edu/Church_State/jcs_recent_issues.htm
A site sponsored by Baylor University. Clicking on 'Notes on Church-State Affairs' will take you to church/state news updates for different countries, although the main focus is on U.S. cases.

U.S. Perspectives:

* The U.S. State Department offers some of the most thorough reports on country violations of religious freedom at http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/
* The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom at http://www.uscirf.gov is an independent monitoring body whose website has extensive congressional testimony.
* The Centre for Religious Freedom at Freedom House has a national campaign to defend persecuted Christians. They also publish a report titled "Religious Freedom in the World." They are at: http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion
* The Institute for Global Engagement, based in the U.S., devotes a part of its web site to religious freedom. Click here to see recent essays on this topic.' http://www.globalengagement.org/issues/rf/index.htm

Subject Specific Sites:

* A website titled "Christians in Crisis" chronicles persecutions against Christians and can be found at: http://www.members.aol.com/biblprof/crisis.htm
* A site at http://www.hrchina.org/topics/religion.html has links to articles and papers specifically related to religious persecution in China.
* A useful site on the whole Religious Freedom situation in the Ukraine is www.risu.org.ua
* Forum 18 News Service, Oslo, Norway (http://www.forum18.org/ ) A Christian-based organisation which focuses on religious freedom research and reports.
* The Keston Institute at http://www.keston.org monitors freedom of religion and researches religious affairs in communist and post communist countries.

IARF Favorites:

* Global ethics was a particular area of interest for our organisation in the 1990’s. A site based in Germany, at http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/stiftung-weltethos/, focuses on inter-religious research, education, and encounter.
* IARF shares office space, and co-operates closely with, two other organisations in Oxford -- the International Interfaith Centre and the World Congress of Faiths. These are at: http://www.interfaith-center.org and www.worldfaiths.org
* Just for inspiration, a site called http://www.worldprayers.org/ has prayers from various faith traditions, including a prayer archive.
NGO in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations