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This week's guest is Dr. Lucy Potter, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of York. Her landmark three-year study — Freedom of Religion or Belief for All: Recognising and Protecting the Non-Religious in the Asylum System — reveals how the UK's asylum system routinely misunderstands and fails people fleeing persecution for leaving their religion. Lucy shares her key findings, her policy recommendations to the Home Office, and how she has been taking this research to Parliament and the UN.

In this episode we cover

• The UN Committee on NGOs — why the newly elected slate of states is alarming for civil society
• The crisis in the Middle East and the erosion of the rules-based international order
• What drew Dr. Lucy Potter to research non-religious asylum claims
• Why the asylum system struggles to assess non-religious identity claims
• Key recommendations — updated Home Office policy, staff training, and adjusting the burden of proof

References

• Dr. Lucy Potter's report — Freedom of Religion or Belief for All: Recognising and Protecting the Non-Religious in the Asylum System: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/Freedom-of-Religion-or-Belief-for-All-report.pdf
• Humanists UK — work on asylum and FoRB training: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/asylum/
• UK All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/parliament/all-party-parliamentary-humanist-group/
• UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief: https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-religion-or-belief
• UN Committee on NGOs: https://csonet.org
• Freedom of Thought Report: https://fot.humanists.international

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This podcast is produced by Humanise Live.

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🎶Music: Horizon by Simon Folwar

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.