Geneva, Switzerland, Jun 16, 2011 / 00:15 am
A leading Vatican diplomat said that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights should intervene in the case of Farah Hatim, a Christian girl in Pakistan whose family said she was kidnapped and forced to marry and convert to Islam.
Freedom of religion is “a test for the respect of all human rights,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the head of the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
At least 700 Christian girls are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam every year, Fides reports.
Archbishop Tomasi called the alleged crime against Farah “a violation of human rights, freedom of conscience and religion, and abuse of personal freedom, freedom to choose how to live one’s life.”