A/80/205
(a) Enhance legal frameworks and ensure that national policies are
aligned with international human rights standards, particularly those outlined
in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, in order to guarantee religious freedom for
refugees and migrants. Those efforts could be complemented by the
establishment of clear legal safeguards for refugees, with a view to ensuring that
they are not subject to discrimination based on their religion or belief;
(b) Recognize that the State’s obligations to uphold freedom of religion or
belief can never exclude migrants and people on the move – neither for reasons
of political expediency nor for electoral exigencies;
(c) Carry out tailored assessments with regard to the freedom of religion
or belief of migrants and people on the move, and ensure that those assessments
are followed by the implementation of corresponding laws and policies;
(d) Enable and facilitate resettlement for those who have had to escape
persecution on the basis of religion or belief; reduce the number of years, even
decades, that they spend in limbo in transit States; and collaborate with religious
and belief communities in that regard, including by exploring private
sponsorship models alongside government-assisted sponsorship for
resettlement;114
(e) Guarantee the right to nationality, as enshrined in international legal
instruments, and refrain, under all circumstances, from revoking or denying
citizenship on the basis of religion or belief;
(f) Ensure that a freedom of religion or belief lens is adopted diligently in
all their activities relating to migrants and people on the move;
(g) Take positive measures to protect persons belonging to religious or
belief minorities from displacement resulting from violence; and ensure that
such instances are thoroughly investigated, that those responsible are brought to
justice and that effective remedies, including guarantees of non-repetition, are
duly provided to victims;
(h) Integrate full respect for freedom of religion or belief as an integral
part of strategies and programmes for durable solutions to displacement;
(i) Protect the right of Indigenous Peoples to freedom of religion or belief,
including in relation to their traditional lands;
(j) Take positive measures to protect migrants, refugees and asylumseekers from discriminatory harassment and violence in relation to their religion
or belief and protect their right to manifest their religion or belief, including in
community with others and in public; take special measures to prevent
discriminatory violence against religious or belief minorities in internally
displaced person camps, refugee camps, asylum centres and other analogous
areas; where feasible and sufficient data protection safeguards are implemented,
collect disaggregated data relating to religion or belief in such situations; and
work actively with religious or belief minorities and human rights defenders to
identify threats, develop effective protection strategies and establish trust with
domestic authorities so that any criminal investigations and proceedings and the
provision of remedies may be effectively realized, with the full participation of
victims and/or their families;
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25-11829
Geoffrey Cameron, “Private sponsorship prefigured: religious groups and Canada’s cold war
refugee policy”, Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2025).
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