• USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. Message from the chair.

  • Executive Director Jackie Wolcott and Director of Policy and Research Knox Thames meet with Volker Kauder of the German Bundestag, Berlin. 

  • USCIRF Commissioners meet with the Honorable David Saperstein, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. January 16, 2015. 

  • USCIRF Policy Analyst Tina Mufford and Burmese civil society and human rights advocate Zin Mar Aung briefed Congressional staffs and NGOs on "Burma: The Ongoing Abuses against Religious and Ethnic Minorities," December 3, 2014.

  • USCIRF Commissioner Hannah Rosenthal speaks at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Event of the 2004 OSCE Berlin Meeting on anti-Semitism attended by Ambassador Power and U.S. NGOs, November 14, 2014, Berlin.

  • USCIRF Commissioner Thomas J. Reese and staff meet with Central African Republic interfaith leaders, November 12, 2014. 

  • USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett, Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon, and Executive Director Jackie Wolcott with parliamentarians at the launch of the International Parliamentary Coalition to Advance Religious Freedom, November 8, 2014, Oslo. 

  • Dwight Bashir, USCIRF Deputy Director for Policy and Research, speaks at a Stimson Center event on the escalating Shi'a-Sunni conflict, October 28, 2014. 

  • USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett with Peter Van Dalen, co-chair of the European Parliament's Working Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, September 30, 2014. 

  • USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett testifies before a House Oversight & Government Reform Subcommittee on "Protecting International Religious Freedom," September 18, 2014. 

What's New at USCIRF

Al Jazeera America -- China must uphold religious freedom in new year
2/26/15 | Op-Eds
USA Today -- Year of the Refugee: Column
2/24/15 | Op-Eds
USCIRF Condemns the Murder of Egyptian Coptic Christians
2/19/15 | Press Releases
India: Importance of Getting Religious Freedom Right
2/6/15 | Press Releases
USCIRF Welcomes Release of Jailed Burmese Activist, Urges Freedom for All Burmese Prisoners of Conscience
2/3/15 | Press Releases
The Huffington Post -- Nations Must Repeal Blasphemy Laws
2/3/15 | Op-Eds
USCIRF Warns of Potential Religiously-Motivated Violence Around Nigeria’s Upcoming Elections
2/2/15 | Press Releases

Defending Freedoms Project

In December 2012, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, in conjunction with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Amnesty International USA, launched the Defending Freedoms Project with the aim of supporting human rights and religious freedom throughout the world with a particular focus on prisoners of conscience.

Specifically, Members of Congress “adopt” prisoners of conscience, standing in solidarity with these brave men and women, while committing to advocate publicly for their release.

Click the interactive map below to view the status of prisoners of conscience highlighted in the Defending Freedoms Project

USCIRF's 2014 Annual Report

USCIRF Issues its 2014 Annual Report: 15th Anniversary Retrospective:  Renewing the Commitment

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal advisory body the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) created to monitor religious freedom abuses abroad, released its 2014 Annual Report, and recommended that the State Department add eight more nations to its list of “countries of particular concern,” defined under law as countries where particularly severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated or perpetrated: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. 

USCIRF also recommended that the following eight countries be re-designated as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. 

 

 

Spotlight

...on Nigeria's upcoming elections

Nigeria will hold presidential, federal parliamentary, and state parliamentary elections on March 28, 2015. The election previously was scheduled for February 14, 2015, but was pushed back due to security concerns in the north-east region of the country. Reports of pre-election violence, combined with rising societal and political tensions, increase the likelihood of religiously-motivated violence around the elections.

In February 2015, USCIRF issued a press release, USCIRF Warns of Potential Religiously-Motivated Violence Around Nigeria’s Upcoming Elections.  From the press release:

“Every effort needs to be undertaken to ensure... Read More

Social Media

The Religious Violence Project

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has launched the Religious Violence Project to highlight violations of religious freedom abroad. Learn more here. 

August 2014 Factsheet: Violence Towards Religious Communities in Pakistan

USCIRF Staff Perspectives

- Pakistan Leads the World in Blasphemy Prisoners, by Knox Thames and Elizabeth Cassidy for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs - March 27, 2014
For more persectives, click here.

...on blasphemy laws

Many countries around the world have laws that punish expression deemed blasphemous, defamatory of religion, or contemptuous or insulting to religion or religious symbols, figures, or feelings.  The application of these laws has resulted in individuals being jailed for merely expressing a different religious belief or being falsely accused.

USCIRF Statement on flogging of Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 9, 2015 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is deeply disturbed by the news that a Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, was publicly flogged 50 times today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as part of a punishment for a blasphemy conviction.  USCIRF has long followed Mr. Badawi’s case, expressed its grave concern, and called for his release.

North Korea Must be Held Accountable for its Abysmal Human Rights Record

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 22, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today welcomed the UN General Assembly’s passage on December 18 of a resolution that condemns North Korea’s “ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” and transmits a UN report on these violations to the Security Council.  The UN’s annual resolution on human rights in North Korea passed by a 116-20 vote, with 53 abstentions. 

Turkey: Reopen Halki

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 20, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today urged the Turkish government to reopen the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary, the only Greek Orthodox educational institution in Turkey, which was closed 43 years ago this month.  Halki remains closed despite Turkish government officials’ promises and public statements of support for its reopening.

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About the Commission

Who We Are

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world, that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.

What We're About

Inherent in religious freedom is the right to think as we please, believe or not believe as our conscience leads, and live out our beliefs openly, peacefully, and without fear.

We are about freedom…

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