CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed the appointment of a Special Envoy to champion religious freedom, allaying fears that the issue was being deprioritised by the new Government (News, 29 November).
The Labour MP for North Northumberland, David Smith, was announced as the new UK Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the human-rights minister, Lord Collins. He will take up the appointment next month.
Mr Smith has worked for the Bible Society and the international charity Tearfund. Until the General Election in July, he led a housing charity in Gateshead run by the Oasis Trust. He is a longstanding member of Christians on the Left.
The FCDO communiqué said: “As Envoy, David will champion FoRB for all overseas, promoting tolerance and mutual respect through and alongside the UK’s global diplomatic network and engagements in multilateral fora. David will represent the UK in international discussions on FoRB, working closely with other special envoys, experts and civil society partners. This work supports the UK’s wider human rights efforts, underpinning our belief that human rights are universal.”
Mr Smith said that he was “delighted” to be appointed, having worked with people of different faiths facing religious persecution, in places ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East and Asia.
The five-month delay between the election and the appointment raised concerns, including from the former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, that the Labour Government was deprioritising the issue.
The founder-president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mervyn Thomas, welcomed the appointment, recalling that he had travelled with Mr Smith to China and Nigeria when Mr Smith was head of the Bible Society’s international programme. “I have no doubt that he will build on the legacy of his predecessor, Fiona Bruce, and maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in FoRB advocacy,” Mr Thomas, who chairs the 70-member UK FoRB Forum, said. “I look forward to continuing to work with him.”
Ms Bruce, who, until July, was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for FoRB, reported directly to the Prime Minister.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, whom Mr Hunt commissioned to write a review of the then Foreign Office’s support for persecuted Christians in 2018, welcomed the appointment, but said: “I hope he will help the UK Government to develop a more religiously literate foreign policy, both so it can stand up for some of the world’s most marginalised and vulnerable people, and so that it can effectively address the ideological — and indeed theological — motivations of some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.”
Henrietta Blyth, the chief executive of the charity Open Doors UK and Ireland, which annually presents country-by-country analysis of religious-freedom violations to parliamentarians, praised Mr Smith as “someone who truly ‘gets’ the need to speak up for Freedom of Religion or Belief in Parliament [and] is highly spoken of. We look forward to working closely with him.” Since the position of FoRB envoy was created in 2018, she said, it had made “a significant difference” in keeping issues of religious freedom on the Government’s agenda.
Concerns have been voiced at the envoy’s change of title, from “Prime Minister’s” to “UK” special envoy. It is understood that Mr Smith will report to the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, via Lord Collins. Bishop Mounstephen said: “I hope this [change] might mean that he is better embedded in the FCDO, and can be a more effective advocate for FoRB there.”
The Roman Catholic cross-bencher Lord Alton, a veteran campaigner for religious freedom, said that Mr Smith was “a first-class appointment”.