Student Staff Project Update: So Heon Park

I joined the Center for Global Justice (Center) student staff in August 2015. The Center provides free legal work to NGOs that defend the poor, the oppressed, and the abused in the world. My experience with the Center helped me develop legal skills such as researching and writing legal memoranda by working on projects in different countries. Moreover, it is such a privilege to be a part of the Center with men and women who recognize the importance of human rights and have compassion toward people who are in need.

This semester I am working on a project for Handong International Law School (HILS). HILS is located in Pohang, South Korea, and HILS shares a similar mission to that of Regent University School of Law. The project involves a religious liberty issue in Mongolia. In Mongolia, the government bans proselytization in religious institutions and requires them to register with local authorities. However, the registration procedure is not clear, and local authorities have great discretion in the registration process. There are only approximately 2% of Christians in Mongolia, and Mongolians view Christianity as “foreign” religion. Christians face difficulties to share their faith even in Christian schools.

To support religious liberty in Mongolia, I have been researching the Mongolian Constitution, international laws, and international human rights cases, which protect the human right to manifest one’s faith. Although the Mongolian Constitution and international human rights laws, which Mongolia is bound by, protect the freedom to manifest one’ religion and share one’s faith, in reality, such freedom is taken away by local authorities. I pray that our work could influence, and hopefully change, the current Mongolian system so that Christians in Mongolia can freely share and practice their faith without any restrictions.