The Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA) and the Association of Free Churches Switzerland (Freikirchen.ch), recently met with representatives of the US Embassy.

The meeting aimed to exchange views on the situation of religious freedom in Switzerland.

Marc Jost, Co-General Secretary of the SEA and Peter Schneeberger, President of the Freikirchen.ch. ,accepted the special invitation of the US Embassy in Switzerland and met with political specialist, Emanuel Riem and Acting Political and economic counsellor, Michelle M. Kayser.

Topics discussed at the meeting included neutrality, tolerance, politics and tax issues, among others.

“We were happy to report on our good and problematic experiences. Overall, we are of course very grateful on the situation of religious freedom; especially compared to all the countries where believers are persecuted“, Jost told Swiss news website Livenet. afterwards.

US embassies around the world are now collecting data to produce an annual report on religious freedom in the individual countries. The US State Department is expected this month to decide which countries should be designated as a country of particular concern or placed on its Special Watchlist based on religious freedom conditions.

Commitment to human rights

The two representatives of the US embassy had been very open and also interested in further meetings, as they are responsible for monitoring all human rights.

According to Jost, the SEA is also committed to that, especially to religious freedom, “for example through four staff members at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, who are supported by SEA“.