2026 Recommendations

The USCIRF Annual Report 

Read the 2026 Annual Report

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) 2026 Annual Report assesses religious freedom conditions abroad during calendar year 2025. The report makes independent foreign policy recommendations to the U.S. president, secretary of state, and congress.

The report’s primary focus is on countries that USCIRF recommends the U.S. State Department designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) or place on its Special Watch List (SWL). Additionally, it names nonstate actors that USCIRF recommends that the U.S. State Department designate as Entities of Particular Concern (EPCs). These recommendations are based on the definitions in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) and the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 (Frank Wolf Act). The report also analyzes the U.S. government’s implementation of IRFA during the reporting period and provides recommendations to bolster overall U.S. efforts to advance freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) abroad. It includes a section discussing key global trends and developments in religious freedom during the reporting period, including in countries that are not recommended for CPC or SWL status. This year, that section covers topics including trends in areas of conflict or political upheaval, weaponization of legal frameworks, artificial intelligence and new technologies, impacts of global funding cuts, as well as attacks on religious leaders, houses of worship, and individuals based on their religious identity. 

USCIRF bases these recommendations on its statutory mandate in IRFA, which specifies the use of international standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international documents. USCIRF’s mandate and annual reports are different from, and complementary to, the mandate and annual reports of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom.

The key findings, recommendations and analyses in this report are based on research by USCIRF, including travel, hearings, meetings and briefings, and are approved by a majority vote of Commissioners, with each Commissioner, under the statute, having the option to include a statement with his or her own individual views.

Standards for Country of Particular Concern and Special Watch List Recommendations

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) defines Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) as countries where the government engages in or tolerates “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom. The statute, as amended by the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 (Frank Wolf Act), defines the U.S. State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) for countries where the government engages in or tolerates “severe” violations of religious freedom.

Under IRFA, particularly severe violations of religious freedom means “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations,” including violations such as: (A) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; (B) prolonged detention without charges; (C) causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or (D) other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons. Although the statute does not specifically define “severe” violations of religious freedom, in making SWL recommendations, USCIRF interprets it to mean violations that meet two of the elements of IRFA’s “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious” standard.

The fact that a country is not covered in this report does not mean that religious freedom issues do not exist there, or that concerns discussed in previous annual reports have improved. It indicates only that USCIRF did not conclude that the conditions in the particular reporting year meet the statutory CPC or SWL standards.

In its 2026 Annual Report, USCIRF recommends 18 countries to the U.S. State Department for designation as CPCs based on their governments engaging in or tolerating particularly severe violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief. These include 12 that the State Department designated as CPCs in December 2023: Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. It also includes one country that President Donald J. Trump designated in 2025: Nigeria. The report includes five additional recommendations: Afghanistan, India, Libya, Syria, and Vietnam. 

The 2026 Annual Report also recommends 11 countries for placement on the U.S. State Department’s Special Watch List based on their governments’ perpetration or toleration of severe violations of religious freedom. These include two that the U.S. State Department placed on that list in December 2023: Algeria, Azerbaijan—as well as nine additional recommendations: Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. While the U.S. State Department included Vietnam on its SWL in December 2023, USCIRF believes the government of Vietnam’s violations rise to the level of CPC status. 

Entities of Particular Concern 

The Frank R Wolf Act of 2016 (Frank Wolf Act) requires the U.S. government to identify nonstate actors engaging in particularly severe violations of religious freedom and designate them as Entities of Particular Concern (EPCs). The law defines a nonstate actor as “a nonsovereign entity that exercises significant political power and territorial control; is outside the control of a sovereign government; and often employs violence in pursuit of its objectives.”

The 2026 Annual Report further recommends that the U.S. State Department designate seven non-state actors as EPCs for particularly severe religious freedom violations. The State Department designated six of these groups as EPCs in December 2023: al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (also referred to as ISIS-West Africa), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). USCIRF has added one new EPC recommendation for 2026: Rapid Support Forces.

There are numerous nonstate groups that commit particularly severe religious freedom violations but do not meet the Frank Wolf Act’s standard for designation as EPCs because, for example, they do not exercise significant political power and territorial control.