Breaking News! White smoke for Mairead McGuinness. – Human Rights Without Frontiers hails this appointment
Human Rights Without Frontiers // PRESS RELEASE // This Thursday 26 March at lunchtime, the office of MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen has published, on behalf of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief, a press release announcing the appointment of a new EU Special Envoy on FoRB.
Human Rights Without Frontiers welcomes the appointment of a new EU Special Envoy for FoRB outside the EU and commends the selection of Mairead McGuinness, a highly qualified individual for this role. This position falls under the responsibility of Magnus Brunner, the current commissioner for internal affairs.
McGuinness is an Irish politician who served as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability and Financial Services from 2020 to 2024.
She previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2020, aligning with the European People’s Party (EPP), and as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2020.
In this role, she was responsible for the implementation of Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty, which governs dialogue between EU institutions and churches, religious associations, and non-confessional organizations.
McGuinness also emphasized the European Parliament’s role in shaping EU Guidelines on Freedom of Religion or Belief, including consultation during their drafting. She supported greater awareness and implementation of these guidelines globally. This document was adopted on 24 June 2013.
End of June 2023, Human Rights Without Frontiers celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Guidelines with an international conference organized at the European Parliament under the auspices of MEP Peter van Dalen and MEP Carlo Fidanza, co-chairs of the Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Since the end of the full mandate of the first EU Special Envoy, Jan Figel, on 30 November 2019, the European Commission has only appointed two Special Envoys for short periods: Christos Stylianides (Cyprus), who left after 4 months, and Baron Frans van Daele (Belgium), a retired diplomat, for 2 years.
It must be noted that during the 10 years and a few months of the existence of the post of EU Special Envoy for freedom of religion or belief in the world, the mandate has only been carried out for 5 years despite the pressing calls of MEPs and civil society. This reflects a persistent lack of political will to defend freedom of religion or belief outside the EU.
The Council of Europe (CoE) has recently appointed a Greek Special Representative against all forms of religious intolerance and, concurrently, several EU member states have established their own Special Representatives on FoRB.
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