Canada giving $1.2M for religious freedom in Nigeria, Central Asia

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Andrew Bennett, Canada's ambassador for religious freedom, are announcing $1.2 million for projects to promote tolerance for religions around the world.

Bennettwas appointed as religious freedom ambassadorearlier this year.

The office, which is modelled on a similar department in the U.S., aims to protect and advocate on behalf of religious minorities under threat, and oppose hatred and intolerance for religion, according to the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The government will provide:

• $553,643 over two years for the promotion of "intercommunity dialogue and conflict mediation" in Jos, Nigeria,and other parts of Nigerias Plateau Stateto develop local mediation capacity and bring together community and religious leaders to talk, and will train 10 senior government officials and key persons from institutions dealing with peacemaking to strengthen the federal governments capacity to support conflict management and resolution. The project funding is going to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
• $672,000 over three years for national training events for government officials and civil society actors in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus, funding for up to 10 small-scale projects seeking ways to address violations of freedom of religion or belief at the national level, and the launch of guidelines on the recognition of belief communities. The funding is going tothe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

Baird says the goal is to establish a roadmap to strengthenthe countries'capacity to encourage conflict management.