Project countries

CSI is engaged in human rights work and currently is active in 14 countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Myanmar, Nagorno Karabakh, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Syria

Rhoda Jatau and her family.

Blasphemy victim Rhoda Jatau chalks up 500 days in Nigerian jail

Rhoda Ya’u Jatau, a Christian health worker from northern Nigeria, is approaching her 500th day in prison where she awaits the continuation of her trial for alleged blasphemy. Jatau has been locked up since her arrest in May 2022. Court hearings in her case are repeatedly postponed.

Featured news

CSI made a statement at the 54th Session of the UNHRC. csi

Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh

CSI makes a statement on Nagorno Karabakh at the Human Rights Council

On September 26, CSI's Joel Veldkamp delivered a statement about Nagorno Karabakh at the 54th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geveva. He spoke during the general debate on human rights situations that require the attention of the Council.

The Davidank monastery

Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh

“One of the world’s oldest Christian communities has been destroyed”

In September 2023, Azerbaijan and Turkey achieved a goal they had been pursuing together for over a century – the destruction of the millennia-old Armenian Christian community of Nagorno Karabakh (or Artsakh), writes Joel Veldkamp.

Biden and Bayramov

Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh

On Nagorno Karabakh, CSI protests the Biden administration’s “All words, no action” policy

Yesterday, the UN Security Council refused to act against Azerbaijan's attack on the Armenian Christians of Nagorno Karabakh. Meanwhile, the U.S. president gladhands the Azerbaijani dicatorship's representative.

CSI project countries

Children in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh has experienced an upsurge in radical Islam in recent years. Pressure on religious minorities is increasing, and violent attacks are a common occurrence.

Schoolchildren in Egypt

Egypt

Christians in Egypt face various forms of social and state-sanctioned discrimination. In recent years, there have been numerous attacks on churches and other Christian institutions. People living in rural areas are often affected by extreme poverty.

India

In India, members of religious minorities are facing an alarming increase in persecution, discrimination and violence. As with members of the lowest castes, they are additionally at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

An outdoor church service in West Papua

Indonesia

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world. However, the indigenous people of the West Papua region have been Christians for generations. Through a systematic settlement of Muslims, the Indonesian government is trying to change the religious make-up of West Papua, turning its Christians into a minority in their own home. Thousands of people have fallen victim to violence and reprisals. Expulsion, arbitrary arrests, torture in prison and unfair trials are the order of the day.

A girl shows off her new winter coat

Iraq

After the U.S. invasion in 2003, jihadist groups targeted Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq for extermination. Hundreds of thousands fled these attacks. Those who survived the Islamic State's genocide are rebuilding their lives. But the security situation remains very fragile and the future uncertain.

A schoolgirl in Thailand

Myanmar

Since independence from Great Britain in 1948, armed conflict has raged in Buddhist-majority Myanmar between the army and the ethno-religious minorities. Hundreds of thousands of people, including many Christians, have been displaced, wounded, tortured and killed in recent decades. CSI launched a new aid project in 2020 that focuses on the mainly Christian Karen minority.

Children from Nagorno Karabakh

Nagorno Karabakh

Nagorno Karabakh, or Artsakh, is part of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion. As the USSR began to collapse in 1988, Azerbaijan tried to destroy Karabakh's Armenian Christian population, leading to a brutal war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the end of the war in 1994, Nagorno Karabakh became effectively independent. After Azerbaijan attacked again in September 2020, CSI established relief programs through local partners. CSI provides aid in both Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

A woman with chickens

Nepal

The oppression of religious minorities is becoming ever more widespread in Nepal. Since the anti-conversion law came into force in 2017, their situation has become increasingly difficult. Discrimination and attacks in everyday life are on the increase.

Children receive a hot meal

Nicaragua

In the slums as well as in remote areas of Nicaragua, children and young people suffer as a result of widespread poverty and violence. CSI works with local partners to make a difference.

Smiling children at an orphanage

Nigeria

In the northeast and in the Middle Belt region, Islamist terrorist groups including Boko Haram and Fulani militias regularly carry out attacks on Christians and moderate Muslims. CSI is active in Nigeria, as well as in other sub-Saharan countries plagued by jihadist attacks, for example Mozambique.

A woman with a boy and a girl

Pakistan

In Pakistan, Christians experience discrimination and violence. They are also disproportionately affected by poverty and exclusion.

Franco Majok feeds the child of a freed slave

South Sudan

During the Sudanese civil war (1983 - 2005), countless people in the south (now South Sudan) were killed by Islamist militias or abducted to the north. Even though the slave raids have stopped, many Southern Sudanese are still enslaved and are exposed to the cruel arbitrariness of slave owners; others were born in slavery. To date, CSI has been able to free over 100,000 slaves.

Smiling women with children

Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, minorities are suffering increasingly under the rapid spread of nationalist ideas and Buddhist extremism. Together with local partners, CSI has been advocating for victims of religious persecution since 2016.

Three children in a kindergarten

Syria

Since 2011, Syria has been devastated by civil war and a cruel economic blockade. In recent years, the cost of living has skyrocketed for ordinary people, leading to widespread hunger and misery. Church leaders estimate that two-thirds of the country's Christians have left to escape jihadist attacks, war, and the destruction of their livelihoods.

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