NEWS

In recent years, as the CCP government escalates its repression of religious beliefs, the public has developed an understanding of the facts of persecution against The Church of Almighty God. A growing number of international human rights organizations and Western scholars have concerned themselves with and conducted in-depth studies on the Church, including Professor Massimo Introvigne, a prominent Italian scholar of new religious movements and managing director of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), and Ms. Rosita Šorytė, the president of ORLIR (International Observatory of Religious Freedom of Refugees). On March 29, 2018, they two were interviewed about human rights of religious refugees in Kensington Hotel in South Korea.

Religious Freedom and persecution in China: The case of the Church of Almighty God The case we would like to submit to you concerns the members of a religious organization known as The Church of Almighty God (CAG). CAG is a Christian new religious movement founded in China in 1991. Credited by Chinese official sources with a membership of some four million, CAG has been banned and persecuted in China since at least 1995. Chinese authorities have declared repeatedly that destroying CAG is among their priorities and that it should be “completely eradicated as a tumor”. The respected NGO Freedom House reported that 80% of those persecuted in China for belonging to “heterodox religions” between 2014 and 2016 were members of CAG.

In France, 335 Chinese citizens who are members of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), one of the largest new religious movements in China, have been denied asylum. 156 of them have received a departure order and are now under threat of deportation. Only six applications for asylum have been accepted.

WE, CHINESE CHRISTIANS OF THE CHURCH OF ALMIGHTY GOD REQUEST AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TO PAY MORE ATTENTION ON OUR PROTECTION CLAIMS IN AUSTRALIA We are Christians of the Church of Almighty God (CAG) seeking protection in Australia. Group of us arrived to Australia in hoping to seek protection but our cases have been unsuccessful due to lack of understanding about our faith and religion. Many of us are struggling to find lawyers and unable to find proper way of settling in Australia.

On March 1, 2018, during the 37th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, the Coordination of the Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience (CAP LC) organized a Side Event on the denial of religious freedom in China and the case of The Church of Almighty God.

Written statement submitted by Coordination des associations et des particuliers pour la liberté de conscience. Religious refugees (Church of Almighty God) from China denied asylum in Europe

HRWF (17.01.18) – Since early 2017, the Chinese government has increased nationwide arrests of members of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), under an initiative they call “Door-knocking Action”. Security officials and police officers search from house to house, arresting, detaining and sometimes torturing and even killing members of the Church of Almighty God.

178 have already received a departure order; arrest, imprisonment and torture are awaiting themHRWF (18.01.2018) – Seoul has seemingly decided to deport over six hundred Chinese members of the Church of Almighty God seeking a safe haven in South Korea, despite the fact that there is a high risk for them to be arrested, detained, and tortured in China. Up until now, none of the applicants have been granted asylum, whereas 178 have received a departure order. How have these individuals suffered upon their return to China?