The 50 staff members in South Asia “have an extraordinary workload because of what’s happening in India,” Price said. “Sometimes they operate in pretty tough neighborhoods,” said Wolf, a former ADF board member, adding, “I don’t think there are any that rival what they do.”Ĭurrently, ADFI has more cases in India and Asia than through any of its other offices. Nearly 80 percent of the world’s population lives in regions where religious liberty is highly restricted, according to the US State Department.įrank Wolf, a religious freedom advocate and former Virginia congressman, applauded ADFI’s work defending religious liberty abroad. Though ADFI’s advocacy across the globe has quietly achieved considerable success in court, it’s harder than in the US to ensure the rulings are actually enforced. Its mission is to keep doors open for the gospel by contending for religious liberty in courts worldwide. The group focuses on countries that uphold the rule of law (at least to some degree) but leaves religious liberty advocacy in totalitarian regimes like North Korea to other organizations. Among its office locations: Vienna, Brussels, Strasbourg, Geneva, Mexico City, and New Delhi. Particularly the whole issue of the real, physical persecution of Christians around the world catalyzed the whole thing.” “There was a sense that something had to be done about that. “We simply did not, at that time, have the network and the resources to deal with all these complaints because we were very US-focused in our advocacy,” said Lorcan Price, European legal counsel for ADFI. Though Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has drawn more publicity for bringing religious liberty cases to the US Supreme Court, its international arm has won more than 1,500 cases in 104 countries since 2010.įollowing its first decade of work in the US, ADF began receiving requests for help on international violations of religious liberty. “Whether under coronavirus regulations or any other law, it is the duty of police to uphold, rather than erode, the rights and freedoms of women like Rosa.”
“The right to express faith in a public space, including silent prayer, is a fundamental right protected in both domestic and international law,” said ADF UK legal counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole. She was put in a police car and fined for violating public health measures.īut the British grandmother only had her penalty dismissed after a yearlong legal battle in which Lalor was backed by the religious freedom advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI). A police officer said Lalor, though socially distanced, masked, and outside, was protesting and didn’t have a “reasonable excuse” to be outdoors during COVID-19 restrictions. Prosecutors there dropped charges against 76-year-old Rosa Lalor, who was arrested in 2021 for praying silently outside an abortion clinic.
Religious liberty won a victory this month in the United Kingdom.
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