"The deprivation of [Rohingya Muslims’] rights—by both government and societal actors—is one of the most profound human rights tragedies of the 21st Century." USCIRF Report December 2016
The Commission believes that when discussing blasphemy, it is important to focus on the real people impacted, and not just the laws themselves. This report, Selected Blasphemy Cases -- highlights a selection of individuals imprisoned or imperiled because of blasphemy laws. See USCIRF’s report on global blasphemy laws here.
Join Human Rights Watch (HRW) experts and USCIRF's Director of Policy and Research, Dwight Bashir, for a staff briefing on Saudi textbooks and intolerance and hate speech, including insights from the upcoming HRW report They Are Not Our Brothers: Hate Speech by Saudi Officials. This report will be available soon at www.HRW.org. More here.
Welcome to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) webpage! Click here to learn more about the work of USCIRF. Click here to learn more about the Commissioners of USCIRF.
USCIRF released a new report on July 17, 2017 titled Women and Religious Freedom: Synergies and Opportunities. While a common misperception persists that women’s rights to equality and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) are clashing rights, the two are actually indivisible and interrelated, the new report finds.
USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark spoke at the annual 7/20 Falun Gong rally on Capitol Hill, July 20, 2017. Click here to read his remarks.
On August 8, 2017, USCIRF Commissioners met with Kurdistan Regional Government representatives, including Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, KRG Representative to the United States, to discuss concerns and progress captured in USCIRF's Wilting in the Kurdish Sun report. Click here to view the report.
USCIRF Vice Chairs Arriaga and Jolley meet with Baroness Elizabeth Berridge and others at the British Parliament to discuss religious freedom and women’s rights, July 2017. Click here to see USCIRF's new report on the synergies and opportunities between women's rights and religious freedom.
USCIRF Executive Director Erin Singshinsuk spoke at the 69th annual Jalsa Salana Ahmadiyya Muslim conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on July 15, 2017. Photo courtesty of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA .
USCIRF Commissioner Tenzin Dorjee testified on July 12, 2017 before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on "Tibet: Religious Freedom." Click here to read his testimony. Click here to watch the hearing. Pictured: Commissioner Dorjee holds up a photo of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima – The Panchen Lama. Commissioner Dorjee is advocating on behalf of the Panchen Lama as part of USCIRF's Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project.
Vice Chairwoman Arriaga (r) and USCIRF’s Executive Director, Erin Singshinsuk (l) hold up Ms. Sabet’s artwork.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivering remarks on the 2016 International Religious Freedom Report.
USCIRF Religious Prisoners of Conscience
Click on the prisoner names to view more information on their cases.
Click here for USCIRF's Prisoner of Conscience List which is mandated by Public Law 114-281, the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2017 Annual Report on April 25, 2017.
In the report, USCIRF recommends that the State Department continue to designate the following ten countries as “countries of particular concern,” defined under law as countries where particularly severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated or perpetrated: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
USCIRF also finds that six other countries meet the CPC standard and should be so designated: Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.
USCIRF on June 1, 2017 released a report titled Wilting in the Kurdish Sun: The Hopes and Fears of Religious Minorities in Iraq. This groundbreaking report is the first independent report of its kind to involve in-person interviews with representatives of almost all the religious minority groups in the KRI.
The report notes that "the KRI remains far more welcoming and tolerant to minorities that its regional neighbors" and expresses hope that special effort will be taken to "preserve [the] freedoms and rights" of minorities.
USCIRF's new groundbreaking report, the first of its kind to involve in-person interviews with representatives of almost all religious minority groups in the KRI, notes that "the KRI remains far more welcoming and tolerant to minorities than its regional neighbors" and expresses hope that special effort will be taken to "preserve [the] freedoms and rights" of minorities.
“For more than four years, Maryam Naghash Zargaran has suffered in an Iranian prison, falsely charged with ‘propagating against the Islamic regime and collusion intended to harm national security’,” - Commissioner Clifford D. May.
USCIRF Vice Chairman Daniel Mark stated that he “welcomed this long-overdue step by Burma’s government. Pwint Phyu Latt and Zaw Zaw Latt, both Muslim, were wrongfully imprisoned for their interfaith activities."
USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. testified on May 24, 2017 before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission at a hearing titled "Freedom of Belief: Countering Religious Violence."
Click here to read Chair Reese's written testimony.
"Dear Pastor Chinh and Mrs. Hong: I write to you as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and a person of faith who is deeply concerned about your well-being."
USCIRF calls for the release of those accused of or convicted of blasphemy stating that blasphemy "laws are used to intimidate and harass individuals, including religious dissenters and minorities and violate their freedom of religion and belief.”
"What will Iran’s May 19 presidential election mean for the Baha’i, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious group? Given that every candidate was handpicked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s Guardian Council, the answer is simple: Nothing good."
CUBA: USCIRF Condemns the Expulsion of Félix Yuniel Llerena López from the University of Cuba. “I call on the Cuban government to immediately cease its harassment of Félix Llerena and his fellow religious freedom advocates,” stated USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
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…
Thomas Bill Search