CSI made several interventions at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March. csi
Since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, the war has continued to spread, involving ever more countries in the Middle East and claiming the lives of civilians across the region. On March 2, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, attacked Israel. In response, Israel began air and ground attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in areas where many Christians live. Northern Iraq, another area with a large Christian population, has also come under attack from Iranian forces, who are targeting U.S. bases and allies there.
In a statement on March 5, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) warned that the conflict poses fresh threats to the existence of the region’s already vulnerable Christian communities. “As war in the Middle East escalates, CSI will continue to stand in solidarity in word and deed with the suffering parts of the Body of Christ and other victims of oppression,” CSI President John Eibner pledged.
The right of return to Nagorno Karabakh
Over the course of two weeks, CSI made several interventions at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. On March 16, CSI raised Azerbaijan’s forced displacement of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh during a general debate. CSI’s statement was co-sponsored by three non-governmental organizations: the World Evangelical Alliance, European Centre for Law and Justice, and Jubilee Campaign.
Karnig Kerkonian, a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Fundamental Rights of the Nagorno-Karabakh People, set up by the Nagorno Karabakh parliament in exile, delivered the statement. Recalling that Azerbaijan had attacked Nagorno Karabakh in September 2023, expelling all the Armenians living there, Kerkonian pointed out that the country is continuing to block the safe return of 150,000 people.
“We ask the Human Rights Council to stand with our people as we seek the most fundamental of human rights—the right to return to our indigenous homeland,” Kerkonian concluded.
SOCAR accused of financing ethnic cleansing
On March 18, Kerkonian’s Committee, together with the Switzerland-Armenia Association, filed a formal complaint in Switzerland against the Swiss-based subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a key source of revenue for the Azerbaijani state.
The complaint states that SOCAR Trading violated international standards on responsible business conduct by providing funding to a state responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh’s indigenous Armenian population.
The legal action was announced the same day at a press conference in Geneva co-hosted by CSI and the Nagorno Karabakh Committee. Speakers also recalled that it was one year since the Swiss parliament adopted a motion mandating the Swiss foreign ministry to organize a peace forum between Azerbaijan and representatives of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. Twelve months on, such a forum has yet to be convened.
Displacement of indigenous Christians of West Papua
The mass displacement of the indigenous Christian peoples of West Papua was the subject of a CSI intervention at the Human Rights Council on March 25. Indonesia’s ongoing military operations and development programs in the region are the cause of this displacement, CSI’s Joel Veldkamp argued.
He noted that the number of internally displaced people in West Papua has increased to 105,000 from 85,000 last year. “This rapid increase in the number of IDPs points to the acceleration of the Indonesian government’s military operations in the region,” Veldkamp said.
He added, “These projects are dispossessing the indigenous Papuan people of their lands on a massive scale, and threaten devastating ecological damage.”
Veldkamp called on the Indonesian government to facilitate a visit to the region by the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assess the situation.
In other interventions at the Human Rights Council, CSI highlighted the threat posed to religious freedom in Nepal by the country’s new anti-conversion law, and condemned Syria’s continuing arbitrary detention of the Christian former mayor of Sadad, Suleiman Khalil.
Additionally, CSI co-sponsored a side event on the oppression of Christians in Algeria with the European Centre for Law and Justice and Jubilee Campaign and another side event on next generation perspectives on freedom of religion and belief with the World Evangelical Alliance and other Christian NGOs.
