Empowering the Heavenly Parent Holy Community
... believers currently cannot hold services or funerals in their churches. One cannot claim that academic freedom is intact while demolishing a university campus; likewise, prohibiting the use of all church facilities and assets is…
... when those languages allow the alleged responsibility of individuals to be projected onto entire communities, they transform stigma into structure. What began as a media narrative can then become a legal fact, and what…
... failure of a state to investigate, prosecute, or prevent these acts—particularly when that same state is pursuing the dissolution of the victim community—engages both state responsibility and the individual criminal responsibility of those officials…
The publicly available evidence points to a sustained, organized, and state-facilitated campaign against a religious minority in Japan that may well cross the threshold of Crimes Against Humanity as defined by the Rome Statute.
... even if the religious doctrine of the Unification Church is not favorably viewed by the Government or the majority of the population, this does not entitle the courts to assess it and dissolve the…
The Court therefore relied on mere speculation to assert that such a level of donations could not be achieved through socially acceptable means. Based on this unsubstantiated assumption, the Court then criticized the Church for…
... Apart from the lack of credibility of most of the claimants’ allegations, which were made under duress, the facts at issue in these 26 civil judgments date back to the period between 1979 and…
... the international scientific community and the courts have ruled that the concepts of “mind control” and “undue influence” are neither scientific nor reliable.
... Under the Covenant, States may not interfere in matters relating to religious practices, unless such interference is required by imperatives such as public safety or law and order. This is where criminal law applies,…
... Despite these urgent calls to clarify its legislation, Japan has never acted on these demands or amended its legislation to bring it into compliance with Article 18 of the Treaty and, consequently, with Article…