Open Doors is an international Christian NGO established in 1955 to support Christians around the world whose right to freedom of religion or belief is violated. Open Doors aims to enable Christians to stay in their own country and be a vibrant part of their society. Open Doors supports freedom of religion or belief for all but pays specific attention to the situation of persecuted and discriminated Christians.
Open Doors supports Christians through:
- Distribution of religious literature
- Training sessions, including leadership and human rights education
- Socio-economic development projects
- Advocacy
Today, Open Doors has offices in over twenty countries in the world. Additionally, Open Doors has teams working directly with persecuted Christians in about 50 countries. These teams provide us with reliable and up to date information about the position of Christians in the world.
Open Doors’ advocacy work aims to enables and encourage politicians, officials and concerned bodies to advance freedom of religion or belief for all, and in particular to act for Christians whose right to religious freedom are violated. Open Doors’ advocacy work takes place in several countries, as well as at UN and EU level.
Since 1955 Open Doors has been gathering information on persecuted Christians in different parts of the world, through our extended network of informants ‘on site’, thereby functioning as an information centre on persecution of Christians in the world. Our expertise is amongst others reflected in the annual World Watch List, highlighting the 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian. It is compiled on the basis of a detailed questionnaire and uses data from Open Doors field workers and independent experts to track the deep structures of persecution, measuring the degree of freedom Christians in individual states have to live out their faith in various various spheres of life: the forum internum, the private realm, that comprises not only the individual’s absolute freedom to choose his religion or belief, including the right to change religion or faith, but also the right to live accordingly to this faith as an individual person; the forum externum, the right to live according to your faith in the wider communities of family, community and nation; the status collectivus, and the collective dimension that recognises the right to worship and organise together as a religious community. The questionnaire also explores the status of the rule of law and wider minority rights.
Official Website: www.opendoors.org