Our mission
BPUR International is a global campaign to enact an ‘International Treaty to Ban the Political Use of Religion’, which would be a crucial foundation to disarm extremism and eliminate the abusive mixing of religion and politics worldwide.
The initiative launched after overwhelming support for an article by founder Salam Sarhan, published in The Independent on 31 January 2019, highlighting why the international community is in desperate need of such a treaty to deal with current and future conflicts.
This peace-making mission has built phenomenal official and legislative support in more than 60 countries, especially in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, where it is mostly needed because of the unique considerate approach to end the cycle of religious conflicts.
Our mission is now formally on the international agenda with a motion for a resolution in the Council of Europe, which would be the perfect leap in the journey towards the United Nations’ General Assembly.
We also have engagements with many governments, including Morocco, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, UAE, Italy, United Kingdom and many other governments, off the record for diplomatic considerations..
This is not an attempt to separate separate religion and politics. On the contrary, we believe such a separation is not only irrelevant, it is also impossible, even in most Western countries, let alone in other parts of the world.
In May 2022, Morocco held an international conference in Rabat, where delegations from 35 countries have put our mission firmly on the international stage and issued the Rabat Declaration, calling the international community and their governments to support our initiative.
The proposed treaty, drafted by leading officials, legislators and top United Nations’ experts, represents a new approach to introduce clear, simple and indisputable international rules to ban: all political uses of religion that undermine human equality; all religious discrimination in rights and duties; all religious exclusion; and all restrictions to freedom of religion and belief.
These simple fundamental justice rules would comprehensively apply to all violations and bypass any clashes with peoples’ deeply engraved religious beliefs. We believe this non-confrontational approach, which is grounded in the utmost respect for all religions, would build a unique global consensus to help the international community deal with current and future conflicts.
No responsible government can refuse such fundamental fair rules. Even perpetrators would lose any argument. All our leaders and members believe that our proposed treaty should easily secure governmental signatories in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and become a fundamental United Nation treaty. It would certainly empower many governments to defend justice values, social peace and the rule of law.
This initiative is entirely different from all previous attempts to navigate the abusive mixing of religion from politics, which have been divisive and confrontational, have often caused more damage than good, and have failed to build any global consensus.
We believe the proposed treaty would make a massive difference to the lives of billions and serve all international humanitarian objectives by eliminating the root causes of many intractable conflicts and a long list of abuses of human rights. It would subsequently enhance stability and open the doors for sustainable development.
It would also help tackle other social economic problems on a global scale, including in all developed countries by alleviating the global tension, mass immigration and improving the social integration of religious minorities in all countries.
BPUR International is aiming to get as many governments from different regions to co-sponsor the tabling of our initiative at the United Nations General Assembly to enact a significant international treaty that would help make the world more tolerant, more fair and more peaceful.
After enacting the International Treaty to Ban the Political Use of Religion, BPUR International will go on to establish a global monitor to expose all political abuses of religion that violate the terms of the treaty.
