The former foreign secretary, Mr Hunt, who also ran to be prime minister, pledged to enact the recommendations of the Bishop of Truro, Rt Rev Philip Mountstephen, that were made in a report into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) support of those discriminated because of their Christian faith around the world.
Mr Hunt told Premier during the campaign that the first thing he would do as PM would be to work with countries whom Britain already has a diplomatic relationship with, such as Nigeria and India, and encourage them to protect persecuted Christians.
However, Mr Hunt is now neither PM nor foreign secretary and will now be returning to the backbenches, with Dominic Raab taking his place.
With fresh faces in the department, Christian charities are calling on the new arrivals to not let their work on this issue collect dust.
Religious freedom charity Open Doors told Premier they are: "urging the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to keep his promise to 'prioritise protecting religious freedoms' and 'stand up for those facing persecution' and Open Doors is calling upon the new foreign secretary, Dominic Raab to carry on the vital work started by his predecessor and implement the recommendations of the report into the persecution of Christians."
They added that they are pleased that shadow foreign office minister, Liz McInnes asked for the FCO to focus on countries such as Nigeria where persecution is escalating and for the prime minister's special envoy on freedom of religion or belief, currently Lord Ahmad, to be made permanent.
Speaking on Premier Christian Radio's News Hour, Dr. John Newton from Aid to the Church in Need, who contributed to the first stage of the report, called on Mr Raab to "commit to taking the findings of the report very seriously."
He said: "I'm quietly optimistic, very quietly optimistic, that we will see the report bearing some sort of fruit - that we won't just see it side-lined or stuck on a shelf to gather dust but I think it's also incumbent upon us within the church, and more widely within all religious groups, to ensure that this report doesn't get side-lined, to keep up reminding governments that the recommendations in here are just, their equitable, and at the end of the day they're only asking for fair treatment for religious groups and that's something that we have to keep pushing for. I don't really think that what it's calling for is something that government can legitimately say no to."
In Church Commissioners questions on Thursday in the House of Commons, Caroline Spelman MP (the Second Church Estates Commissioner, whose role is to liaise between the church and parliament) started by paying tribute to Mr Hunt for his work in this area and added: "I sincerely hope that the new foreign secretary will follow through on the recommendations of the report."
Diana Johnson MP asked whether Mr Johnson would stick to his own pledge of supporting persecuted Christians, to which Mrs Spelman replied: "I'm pleased to say that the new prime minister did give his pledge to follow through on this and the report is very revealing...and acknowledges a great deal needs to be done to provide more support for persecuted Christians around the world."
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