- Atheist Freethinkers - https://www.atheology.ca -
Atheist coalition challenges Canadian government on Special Refugee Program
Posted By jean.meslier On 2021-10-10 @ 16:41 In | No Comments
The tenuous and dangerous living circumstances in Afghanistan following the nation’s fall to the Taliban are dire for many of its citizens, especially atheists and other apostates. Humanist, atheist, and agnostic organizations in Canada represent a diverse group of people who believe that each of us has the responsibility to give meaning to our own life. Those citizens finding meaning in rethinking and rejecting the idea of supernatural entities, including gods, must be as respected as religious believers. In the spirit of the universalism of secular humanism, a consortium of Canada’s many humanist, atheist and agnostic organizations have come together to urgently call upon the government to ameliorate a grave error in the Special Humanitarian Assistance Program for Afghan Nationals.
The current policy language of the Special Humanitarian Assistance Program for Afghan Nationals is as follows:
“There are 2 eligible groups under this program.
Group 1:
You may be eligible for this program if
- you’re an Afghan national
- you’re outside of Afghanistan and
- you don’t have a durable solution in a third country
This group will include people such as
- woman leaders
- human rights advocates
- journalists and people who assisted Canadian journalists
- persecuted religious minorities
- LGBTI individuals
- immediate family members of one of the above
Group 2:
You may be eligible for this program if you’re an extended family member of someone who helped the Government of Canada and has already been resettled to Canada.”
The language used in this policy that exclusively designates eligibility based on membership in a persecuted religious minority group explicitly discriminates against those persecuted on the basis of their non-belief and atheism.
Atheists and apostates from Islam in Afghanistan face extreme danger and this serious risk should be neither overlooked nor dismissed. It is well established that the classical punishment for apostasy in Islamic jurisprudence is death. Senior Taliban officials have recently announced their intention to impose strict traditional Sharia (Islamic law) punishments, including execution and the amputation of hands. Thus, the safety of all apostates and non-believers is of the utmost concern.
This policy’s highly restrictive current language fails to meet Article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines the observance and promotion of “freedom of religion or belief.” The government of Canada is also failing to fulfill its responsibility as a party to the United Nations 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which describes refugees as those who are “unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Article printed from Atheist Freethinkers: https://www.atheology.ca
URL to article: https://www.atheology.ca/special/atheist-coalition-challenges-refugee-program/
URLs in this post:
[1] : https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.atheology.ca%2Fspecial%2Fatheist-coalition-challenges-refugee-program%2F
[2] : http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Atheist%20coalition%20challenges%20Canadian%20government%20on%20Special%20Refugee%20Program&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.atheology.ca%2Fspecial%2Fatheist-coalition-challenges-refugee-program%2F
Click here to print.
Copyright © 2015 Atheist Freethinkers. All rights reserved.