May 3, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2007
Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today announced its 2007 recommendations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on "countries of particular concern," or CPCs. The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) requires that the United States designate as CPCs those countries whose governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious violations of the universal right to freedom of religion or belief.
"The issue of religious freedom is now understood to have a profound impact on our own political and national security interests as well as on political stability throughout the world," said Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer.
The Commission's recommendations for CPC designation for 2007 are: Burma, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The Commission has also established a Watch List of countries where conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation but which require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments. Iraq has been added to the Commission's Watch List this year, joining Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
Today the Commission is also releasing its 2007 Annual Report with recommendations on U.S. policy for the President, Secretary of State, and Congress with regard to CPC countries, as well as other countries where the United States can help to promote freedom of religion or belief.
The2007 Annual Reportmay be found on the Commission's web site at www.uscirf.gov and may also be obtained by contacting the Commission's Communications Department at [email protected] or (202) 523-3240), ext. 114.
The following is the text of the Commission's letter to Secretary Rice with 2007 CPC recommendations:
May 1, 2007
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, DC
Dear Secretary Rice:
As required by IRFA and pursuant to our review of the facts and circumstances regarding violations of religious freedom around the world, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom continues to recommend that the following 11 countries be designated as countries of particular concern, or CPCs: Burma, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The 2006 State Department Designations
Re-Designations
In November 2006, you re-designated Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, Sudan, Iran, Eritrea, and Burma as CPCs. The Commission concurs with these 2006 CPC re-designations and continues to conclude that there have been no changes substantial enough to warrant the removal of these seven countries from the list of CPC designations.
Vietnam: Still Deserving CPC Designation
Vietnam was removed from the State Department's CPC list in November 2006, on the eve of President Bush's visit to Hanoi for the Asian Pacific Economic Conference. The Commission expressed its disappointment that the CPC designation was lifted, citing continued arrests and detentions of individuals in part because of their religious activities and continued severe religious freedom restrictions targeting some ethnic minority Protestants and Buddhists, Vietnamese Mennonites, Hao Hoa Buddhists, and monks and nuns associated with the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). The Commission recognized positive religious freedom developments in Vietnam, as the government released prominent religious prisoners, introduced some legal reforms, facilitated the legal recognition of religious communities, and, except for isolated cases, ended large scale forced renunciations of faith. However, the Commission stated that these improvements were insufficient to warrant lifting the CPC designation because it was too soon to determine if the legal protections would be permanent and whether such progress would last beyond Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Lifting the designation also potentially removed a positive diplomatic tool that proved an effective incentive to bilateral engagement on religious freedom, and related human rights.
Since the CPC designation was lifted and Vietnam joined the WTO, positive religious freedom trends have, for the most part, stalled, and Vietnam has initiated a severe crackdown on human rights defenders and advocates for the freedoms of speech, association and assembly, including many religious leaders who previously were the leading advocates for religious freedom in that country. Given the recent deterioration of human rights conditions in Vietnam and because of continued abuses of and restrictions on religious freedom, the Commission continues to believe that the lifting of the CPC designation was premature. We recommend that Vietnam be re-designated as a CPC in 2007.
Uzbekistan: Severe Violations Finally Acknowledged
Last year, for the first time, you designated Uzbekistan a severe violator of religious freedom. The Commission welcomes the designation of Uzbekistan as a CPC, which the Commission has recommended for two years. The Uzbek government continues to exercise a high degree of control over the practice of the Islamic religion and to arrest Muslim individuals and crack down harshly on groups and mosques that do not conform to state-prescribed practices or that the government claims are associated with extremist political programs. This has resulted in the imprisonment of thousands of persons in recent years, many of whom are denied the right to due process. There are credible reports that many of those arrested continue to be tortured or beaten in detention, despite official Uzbek promises to halt this practice. Moreover, Uzbekistan has a highly restrictive law on religion that severely limits the ability of religious communities to function, leaving more than 100 religious groups currently denied registration. The government of Uzbekistan faces threats to its security, but these threats do not excuse or justify the scope and harshness of the government's ill treatment of religious believers nor the continued practice of torture, which reportedly remains widespread.
Responding to the CPC Designation: Discussions with Saudi Arabia
In July 2006, you determined to leave in place a waiver "to further the purposes" of IRFA by announcing that bilateral discussions with Saudi Arabia had enabled the United States to identify and confirm a number of policies that the Saudi government "is pursuing and will continue to pursue for the purpose of promoting greater freedom for religious practice and increased tolerance for religious groups." Because previous reform pledges made by the Saudi government have not been implemented in practice, the Commission remains concerned about whether and how the newly reported Saudi policies will be implemented and how the United States will monitor them. The Commission therefore recommends that the State Department report publicly to Congress every 120 days on the implementation of the policies identified in the bilateral discussions. The newly confirmed policies-if actually implemented in full-could advance much-needed efforts to dismantle some of the institutionalized policies that have promoted severe violations of freedom of religion or belief in Saudi Arabia and worldwide.
Additional Countries that Warrant CPC Designation
Of the countries not on your CPC list, in addition to Vietnam, the Commission continues to find that Pakistan and Turkmenistan have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. We continue this year to recommend that these countries be designated as CPCs.
The Commission's Watch List
In addition to its CPC recommendations, the Commission has established a Watch List of countries where conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation but which require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments. Afghanistan, where the former Taliban regime was once designated under IRFA as a particularly severe violator, was added to the Commission's Watch List last year, joining Belarus, Egypt, Bangladesh, Cuba, Indonesia, and Nigeria. The Commission is concerned about the serious abuses in these countries, and that the governments either have not halted repression and/or violence against persons amounting to severe violations of freedom of religion, or have failed to punish those responsible for perpetrating those acts. We urge you to pay particular attention to the poor situation for religious freedom in these countries, as we will continue to do.
This year the Commission has added Iraq to its Watch List, due to the alarming and deteriorating situation for freedom of religion and belief. Despite ongoing efforts to stabilize the country, successive Iraqi governments have not adequately curbed the growing scope and severity of human rights abuses. Although non-state actors, particularly the Sunni-dominated insurgency, are responsible for a substantial proportion of the sectarian violence and associated human rights violations, the Iraqi government also bears responsibility. That responsibility takes two forms. First, the Iraqi government has engaged in human rights violations through its state security forces, including arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without due process, extrajudicial executions, and torture. These violations affect suspected Sunni insurgents, but also ordinary Sunnis who are targeted on the basis of their religious identity. Second, the Iraqi government tolerates religiously based attacks and other religious freedom abuses carried out by armed Shi'a factions including the Jaysh al-Mehdi (Mahdi Army) and the Badr Organization. These abuses include abductions, beatings, extrajudicial executions, torture and rape. Relationships between these para-state militias and leading Shi'a factions within Iraq's ministries and governing coalition indicate that these groups operate with impunity and often, governmental complicity. Although many of these militia-related violations reveal the challenges evident in Iraq's fragmented political system, they nonetheless reflect the Iraqi government's tolerance-and in some instances commission-of egregious violations of religious freedom. Finally, the Commission also notes the grave conditions for non-Muslims in Iraq, including Chaldo Assyrian Christians, Yazidis, and Sabean Mandaeans, who continue to suffer pervasive and severe violence and discrimination at the hands of both government and non-government actors. The Commission has added Iraq to its Watch List with the understanding that it may designate Iraq as a CPC next year if improvements are not made by the Iraqi government.
* * *
Summaries of conditions in all of the countries discussed in this letter can be found in the Commission's Annual Report, which we have enclosed and which will be released concurrently with this letter. The Commission has made specific policy recommendations on most of these countries, and we encourage you to give special attention to those recommendations, which can also be found in our report. We also urge the Department of State to take any actions necessary to implement the IRFA legislation.
Madame Secretary, the work of the Commission continues to demonstrate that the issue of religious freedom intersects with numerous U.S. foreign policy concerns. Severe violations of freedom of religion or belief have a profound impact on our own political and national security interests as well as on political stability throughout the world. When our government actively promotes religious freedom, we work to undercut the extremism that threatens the world. In advancing this central human right, we thus act to promote peace and security for all nations, including our own.
The Commission looks forward to meeting with you to discuss its 2007 CPC recommendations.
Respectfully yours,
Felice D. Gaer
Chair
cc: John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State
R. Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
Paula J. Dobriansky, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs
Barry F. Lowenkron, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
John V. Hanford, III, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom
Stephen Hadley, National Security Advisor
Michael G. Kozak, Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Organizations, National Security Council
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.
Felice D. Gaer,Chair•Michael Cromartie,Vice Chair•Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Vice Chair•Nina Shea,Vice Chair•Preeta D. Bansal•Archbishop Charles J. Chaput•Khaled Abou El Fadl•Richard D. Land•Bishop Ricardo Ramirez•Ambassador John V. Hanford III,Ex-Officio•Joseph R. Crapa,Executive Director |