Humanists International calls for recognition of the limits of the right to freedom of religion or belief at OSCE

At the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, Humanists International has called on OSCE participating States to ensure that the right to freedom of religion or belief and calls to protect religious or belief communities does not justify the erosion of reproductive rights or LGBTI+ rights.

The statement was delivered on 8 October by the organization’s Senior Advocacy Officer, Leon Langdon, at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, convened by the Swiss Chairperson in Office at the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe. The plenary concerned tolerance and non-discrimination, and featured introductory remarks delivered by former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of religion or belief, Professor Ahmed Shaheed of the University of Essex.

The statement began by acknowledging the need for significant focus on countering intolerance and hate against all religious and belief communities, warning of the need to ensure that focusing on specific communities – such as through the OSCE’s “Chairperson-in-Office Representatives” for “Combating Anti-Semitism,” “Combating Intolerance and Hatred against Muslims,” and on “Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions” – can obfuscate harm faced by smaller religious or belief communities, while acknowledging that certain contexts may require specific attention.

Leon Langdon delivering the statement at the OSCE

The statement then highlighted the risk of focusing on intolerance at the expense of an intersectional rights-based approach, which must acknowledge the universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated nature of human rights. The statement continued to highlight examples where religion or the right to freedom of religion or belief is instrumentalized to undermine the rights of others. Examples given included challenges to abortion buffer zones on religious grounds, as well as the defense of conversion practices.

Other interventions included that of the Baha’i International Community, which called for positive approaches to countering hate, including through education, as well as the United States, Czechia on behalf of the EU, and Türkiye. Professor Shaheed, in his concluding remarks, specifically thanked speakers who spoke about gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the non-religious.

The intervention continues re-engagement with the OSCE and is the second statement delivered at the 2026 Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw. Preceding this statement, Humanists International highlighted the need for the right to freedom of religion or belief to protect the rights of the non-religious and to recongize that “Humanists that protect, promote and defend the rights of others are legitimate Human Rights Defenders and should be recognized and treated as such.”

Photo by Kamil Gliwiński on Unsplash