Most people know "this is a cooked-up case," Coutts said, but they are afraid to take action because religious emotion runs so high, and many people who have defended Christians have ended up dead.
He also cautioned that a new form of Islam has crept into Pakistan, justifying practices forbidden by traditional Islam, such as suicide bombings.
"Our government is not strong enough to control the kind of extremism that has developed in our country," he said, noting that both Christians and Muslims who do not share the extremist interpretation of Islam are suffering.
Salwa Kahalaf Rasho, a Yazidi woman from Iraq, shared her story of capture and abuse during the 2014 ISIS attacks against the Yazidi people in the country – the latest of more than 70 "genocidal campaigns" her people have suffered throughout their history.
"They [ISIS fighters] killed thousands of Yazidi men in the most horrific ways. As a result, about 60 mass graves of has been found in my hometown Sinjar. More than 6,000 women and girls were kidnapped, including me and many of my relatives," Rasho said.
"We have been subjected to all types of sexual and physical abuse and violence. We were sold in slave markets. We were objects to be bought and purchased, alongside enduring continuous beatings and torture."
After eight months of captivity, Rasho escaped and was able to move to Germany. But there are still some 3,000 Yazidi women missing, she said, stressing the need for international efforts to rescue these women.
She also called for the protection of Yazidi refugees and of minority areas in Iraq and Syria, the preservation of mass graves in Sinjar as evidence of genocide, cooperation with the U.N. team investigating Islamic State crimes in Iraq, and reconstruction efforts aimed at helping people return to their homes.
"These steps are the only way of preserving the existence of minorities in the region, especially Yazidi and Christians," she said. "If this action is not taken, our existence, identity and culture will be wiped out- fulfilling the aim of the Islamic State."
Support should also be given to the displaced, she said, noting that refugees often face both physical and mental health risks, and "suicide rates are on the rise."
Also offering a testimony was aid worker Ziear Khan, who has worked with Rohingya Muslims in Burma since 2008 through the British development and relief charity Human Appeal.
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The Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Burma, are not recognized by the state and have faced increased persecution in their homeland since 2012. They have been described "as the most persecuted group in the world right now," Khan said.
He recounted the stories of women and children whose family members were brutally killed before their eyes, leaving them abandoned and traumatized.
Khan also called for action, specifically sanctions on trade with Burma until the crisis is addressed.
"I think about the lessons we need to learn. I think about Rwanda, I think of Bosnia and the Holocaust," he said, adding that "I would hate to be silent on the day I'm questioned by my Lord when these atrocities were taking place, when all these people were being killed."
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.