Most people worldwide live under blasphemy laws – Freedom of Thought report

Blasphemy laws exist in 91 states, affecting 57% of the global population. That is the headline from the 2024 edition of Humanists International’s Freedom of Thought Report, which launches today. The Report is a unique survey of discrimination and persecution against humanists, atheists, and the non-religious in every country across the world. It is now in its 13th annual edition.

Blasphemy laws – explicit or de facto – are laws that prohibit, punish, or otherwise limit expression that hurts religious sentiments or feelings. Those who defend the existence of blasphemy laws often do so on the grounds that they are intended to prevent intercommunal violence. However, contrary to this, blasphemy laws are an affront to human rights.

Human rights protect people from discrimination, violence, and other forms of harm. They do not protect ideas or objects, nor do they protect people from feeling insulted when their ideas – including their religions – are challenged. However, blasphemy laws do just that. They stifle not only the right to freedom of expression but the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) itself. FoRB doesn’t only protect those who hold religious beliefs. It protects humanists to hold and express their beliefs too. Yet blasphemy laws – which can affect all religion or belief groups – can criminalise the non-religious just by simply declaring that they do not believe in a god.

The Freedom of Thought Report finds that:

• blasphemy laws exist in 91 countries across the globe, affecting 57% of the population
• 12 countries have the death penalty for so-called blasphemy or apostasy (leaving a religion)
• a further 60 countries have prison sentences for blasphemy or apostasy
• in 19 countries, it is possible to receive a fine or other administrative sanction for blasphemy

Humanists UK, alongside Humanists International and other organisations, co-founded the End Blasphemy Laws coalition in 2015, which has since seen ten countries repeal its blasphemy laws. However, one of those ten – Denmark – has since introduced a new blasphemy law, prohibiting the ‘inappropriate treatment’ of religious texts. 

Humanists UK also promotes the Rabat Plan of Action as a tool to combat incitement of hatred on grounds of religion or belief. The Plan recommends that ‘States that have blasphemy laws should repeal them, as such laws have a stifling impact on the enjoyment of freedom of religion or belief, and healthy dialogue and debate about religion’.

Following calls for the UK to follow Denmark in reintroducing blasphemy laws, the UK Government confirmed to Humanists UK in December that there would be ‘no return’ of blasphemy laws, and no new laws that otherwise restrict freedom of expression about religions.

Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson is also the elected President of Humanists International. Introducing the Report in his capacity as President, he said:

‘Where blasphemy laws are enforced, no one, whatever their religion or belief, is immune to persecution. Beyond their use in a court of law, their existence justifies, enables, and promotes discrimination, ostracism, and vigilante violence. Now more than ever, we must work together to ensure the repeal of blasphemy laws globally, in favor of the promotion of dialogue and mutual respect for everyone’s right to freedom of religion or belief.’

Blasphemy laws were repealed in England and Wales in 2008 and Scotland in 2021. However, blasphemy remains a crime in Northern Ireland, where Northern Ireland Humanists leads the campaign to abolish it.