In Depth:  CSW

The Sovereignty Council of Sudan has now officially abolished the death penalty for apostasy after the Chairman of the Council, Lieutenant General Abdelfattah El Burhan, signed several new laws and amendments.

The cancellation of Article 126 of Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Code, which stipulated that those found guilty of apostasy are to be sentenced to death, was announced in a press statement by the Ministry of Justice. The article has historically been used to target religious minorities. For example, in May 2014, Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy by the Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif, Khartoum (although a court of appeal overturned the original ruling in June 2014).

On 24 July, in Zikpak, ten people were killed, and approximately 11 were seriously injured during an attack by armed assailants of Fulani extraction. One of the victims was a child aged five, whilst another was a 25-year-old man, who had recently graduated from an evangelical theological seminary and was about to be married.

The attackers also burnt down five houses and then attempted to set a local church building ablaze, but rain extinguished the flames. Six of the injured survivors are reportedly in specialist hospitals. According to local sources, security agents arrived at the scene well after the assailants had left (despite the fact that Zikpak is less than 2km away from a Joint Task Force base).

A Pakistani Christian has died from his injuries after being shot several times by his neighbour in June. Nadeem Joseph and his mother-in-law Elizabeth Masih were shot in their new home, just days after the family moved into TV Colony, Peshawar. Mr Joseph succumbed to his injuries despite undergoing surgery five times.

The attackers have been identified as Salman Khan and his sons, who live opposite the Christian family. According to a local source, Mr Khan became unhappy when he found out that the Christian family had moved into the neighbourhood and began a campaign of daily harassment against the family. Mr Khan repeatedly demanded that Mr Joseph and his family vacate the neighbourhood, telling Mr Joseph that Christians cannot live in a Muslim area. He threatened to kill them on a daily basis.

A pastor's daughter died, several people were injured and a Baptist church was torched during an attack on a village in the Rogo Local Government Area of Kano State on 1 April.

The daughter of the Revd Habila Garba suffocated following an arson attack on her home in Gidan Maso Village. Local Muslim youth set fire to the house after failing to locate Yahaya Joshua, a Christian who had briefly converted to Islam before returning to Christianity. The mob had wanted to kill Mr Joshua, but when they could not find him they lit cornstalks inside the church and burned it to the ground, ignoring the pleas of the local Christians. They then went on to attack the pastor's residence nearby.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on August 7 released a new report on religious freedom in Cuba.

From the beginning of 2014 to mid-July, CSW recorded 170 separate religious freedom violations, many of which involved dozens of victims. This followed the record of 180 documented cases in 2013, compared with 120 in 2012 and 40 in 2011.

A group of Protestant Christians in Chiapas, who have been the target of threats and physical attacks, in late July called on state and federal government officials to protect their religious freedom.

Leaders of the village of Cuahutémoc Cárdenas, Palenque Municipality, have cut off water and electricity and restricted the access of a group of 42 Protestants to their farmland. The former village commissioner, Leonarda Damas Cruz, justified this action by referring to an old legal agreement which stipulates that inhabitants of Cuahutémoc Cárdenas must be members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Roman Catholics.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on May 13 released a new report on human rights in Burma following a four-week fact-finding visit to the country.

The report welcomes signs of political change in the country, including ‘significantly increased freedom’ for media, civil society and political actors, and improvements in freedom of expression in some areas, but warns against ‘premature euphoria’ and highlights ‘many very grave challenges and concerns, particularly in respect to the protection of human rights, including freedom of religion or belief’.