Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I raise a global human rights crisis that is ignored far too often. Next week, the charity Aid to the Church in Need will mark its annual week of witness which highlights the ongoing persecution of Christians around the world. It is a sobering thought when we realise that since the first century AD of the Roman Empire, which we most associate with the beginning of Christian persecution, more Christians have been killed for their faith in the past 100 years than in the previous 1,900 going back to the first Christians. The latest religious freedom in the world report of 2025 published by Aid to the Church in Need shows that a staggering 413 million Christians live in countries where religious freedom is severely violated. That is 18% or about one in five Christians. Of these, approximately 220 million live in countries where they are directly exposed to persecution. That is 10% or one in ten of all Christians. I seek an urgent debate on this matter. At a time when there is heightened awareness of human rights abuses globally, it seems there is a blind spot when it comes to violence against Christians and the wider threat to religious freedom for people of all faiths and none. According to Aid to the Church in Need, the right to believe or to live according to one's convictions is in decline in 62 countries, affecting billions of people. Religious persecution destroys communities, fuels conflict and forces millions to flee. Now, more than ever, religious freedom must be defended and protected worldwide. Religious freedom is a litmus test for all other freedoms. Without the freedom to believe, all other freedoms are under threat.

I wish to mention my sorrow at the news of the death of Alice Cairns, the mother of Philip Cairns, a name known to everybody in this country. I had the honour of knowing Alice Cairns. She was a champion of the cause of protecting human life from its very beginning to its natural end. She was a woman who was suffering but she was strong through it all.On hearing the news of her passing today, I thought of the words of T.S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, unremembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

She was a great woman, admired by many, who endured a lot but was courageous throughout. May she rest in peace.