The UNPO has submitted a report to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documenting systematic violations of freedom of religion or belief against unrepresented and Indigenous peoples and minorities. This submission responds to the OHCHR’s call for inputs issued in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 80/200 on “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief”.
UNPO’s submission examines how states are deliberately deploying religious intolerance as an instrument of political control directed at peoples whose lack of representation leaves them without effective recourse. It draws on documented evidence from ten UNPO member communities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Iranian Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs, Baloch (in both Iran and Pakistan), Hmong, Khmer-Krom, Crimean Tatars, and Sindhi. Through the analysis of these cases, the report identifies consistent patterns of state repression framing minority religious identity as a threat to national unity or security, in order to justify violations that erode the cultural foundations upon which rest the communities’ distinct identities and their claims to self-determination.
Across the cases documented, states formally enshrining religious freedom in their constitutions systematically deny it in practice. They weaponise counter-terrorism, anti-extremism, and national security frameworks to criminalise peaceful religious expression, use of mandatory registration systems to exclude minority faiths from legal protection, target clergy and community leaders as a means of dismantling religious institutions, and suppress those who seek to document or resist these violations.
Under the Chinese Communist Party, Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims face a policy of religious sinicisation that has resulted in the mass arbitrary detention of over one million Uyghurs in so-called reeducation centres, the forced transfer of Tibetan children to state boarding schools, the criminalisation of ordinary Islamic practice, and state assertion of authority over the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist leaders. Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab, and Baloch communities in Iran face compounded persecution at the intersection of ethnic and religious minority status within a Shi’a theocratic state, with the Baloch, who constitute approximately two percent of Iran’s population, accounting for over twenty percent of the country’s convictions and executions. In Laos and Vietnam, Hmong and Khmer-Krom communities face the forced renunciation of faith, demolition of places of worship, imprisonment of clergy, and prosecution of individuals for sharing information about religious freedom online. In Russian-occupied Crimea, Crimean Tatars are subject to a sustained campaign of religious repression, with their highest representative body, the Mejlis, banned as an extremist organisation, mosques closed or placed under surveillance, and hundreds prosecuted for alleged membership in a religious organisation legal under Ukrainian law.
A central argument of the submission is that religious persecution against unrepresented peoples must be understood as a self-determination issue, not merely an individual rights issue. For many of these communities, religion and belief are inseparable from language, culture, and collective existence as peoples, constituting the primary institution through which identity is transmitted and preserved across generations.
The UNPO’s submission calls on the OHCHR to take concrete action to address religious intolerance against unrepresented peoples. This includes:
- Strengthening analysis of the intersection between freedom of religion or belief, cultural rights, and self-determination, recognising that the denial of religious freedom frequently operates as a mechanism of exclusion from political participation and as an instrument of forced assimilation;
- Documenting patterns of religious repression as mechanisms of marginalisation, including the ways in which restrictions on religious practice function to exclude unrepresented peoples from public life and equal representation;
- Examining the use of security and administrative frameworks to restrict religious life, and encouraging states to review and reform legislation that criminalises peaceful religious expression;
- Ensuring greater visibility of unrepresented and Indigenous peoples and minorities in the data, reporting, and thematic priorities that shape international responses to religious intolerance;
- Strengthening follow-up and accountability mechanisms for documented violations, including effective remedies for affected communities.
