How violence and fear constrain international religious freedom diplomacy: Lessons from the case of Asia Bibi

Many Western governments have started to integrate the protection of religious freedom into their foreign policies. Research on the implementation of these policies, however, has been scarce, and it focuses primarily on their broader impact and why they often do not attain their goals. We argue that their implementation should be studied using specific case studies in which governments successfully engaged in religious freedom diplomacy. We, therefore, use the international campaign to free Asia Bibi, a Christian woman in Pakistan sentenced to death for blasphemy, to pursue the following questions: How can governments successfully implement international religious freedom policies, particularly in contexts in which religion is highly politicised? And what are the specific constraints of international religious freedom diplomacy in such emotionally laden contexts? Based on a variety of qualitative data, this article identifies important lessons learnt from the case study to inform future campaigns, such as the importance of private diplomacy in the face of violent backlash. It contributes to the literature on governmental human rights diplomacy by emphasising the role of uncivil society and the emotion of fear constraining government behaviour in both the target state and among intervening diplomats.