Wissam al-Saliby of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) demanded that Turkey "review its decisions to effectively expel and ban 60 Protestant church members" at the 45th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland).
The WEA is a global organization of evangelical Christian churches that serves over 600 million evangelicals. The alliance holds Special Consultative Status in the Economic and Social Council of the UN and is uniquely positioned to advocate for evangelical beliefs and help the poor and needy on an international scale.
The UN Human Rights Council meets in Geneva periodically and is "an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe."
The session included Turkey's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and the WEA utilized the platform Turkey to mention two cases, "David Kandasamy, a Sri Lankan national resident in Turkey, has lived in Turkey for 20 years before receiving an entry ban. He is married to a Turkish Christian woman, and has four children, all of whom Turkish citizens".
"Andy and Cathryn Hoard lived in Turkey for 30 years. Cathryn received a sudden entry ban when flying back to Turkey from a short trip. She spent three days detained in a windowless immigration holding cell before being deported to the United Kingdom", said Wissam al-Saliby, WEA UN Geneva Advocacy Officer.
The WEA said in its statement, "in the past two years, 60 or more expatriate Protestant Christians in Turkey have been denied residency, arbitrarily and without due process".
In addition, the evangelical body condemned that "spouses have been separated from their families. Expats were denied access to their property and investments that had previously been carefully investigated by Turkish authorities and received their full approval".
"The authorities have given no explanation apart from telling these Christians that they constitute a threat to national security according to confidential government reports", the WEA alleged. "Turkish authorities have denied the lawyers of these expats access to the confidential reports, and therefore, the authorities have offered no possibility for a fair and just appeal to review these orders in accordance with international law, namely article 13 of the ICCPR".
The WEA completed its statement by calling on "Turkey to review its decisions to effectively expel and ban the 60 Protestant church members, and to allow for a fair and just recourse against national security decisions and for the examination of the facts behind such decisions".
The WEA has also addressed religious freedom issues in Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sweden at the Human Rights Council that was held from September to October.
