FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2019

USCIRF Statement on Release of State Department’s 2018 International Religious Freedom Report

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to the release of the 2018 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom by the State Department, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Tony Perkins issued the following statement:

“We are pleased that the State Department is committed to improving religious freedom conditions throughout the world. We look forward to learning, within the mandated 90 days, which countries will be designated as countries of particular concern (CPC) or will be put on the Special Watch list, and which nonstate actors will be designated as entities of concern (EPC).

We encourage the State Department to refrain from using preexisting sanctions or indefinite waivers that provide little or no incentive for governments of CPC-designated countries to reduce or halt egregious religious freedom violations.”

The State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report covers nearly 200 countries, 28 of which are analyzed in USCIRF’s Annual Report on the world’s worst offenders against freedom of religion or belief.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or Kellie Boyle at [email protected] or +1-703-898-6554.

WASHINGTON – In response to the release of the United Nations Refugee Agency’s Global Trends report on worldwide forced displacement, and in observance of June 20^th as World Refugee Day, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Tony Perkins issued the following statement:

“It is unconscionable that over 70 million people – 50% of whom are children – have been forcibly displaced from their homes, many as a result of religious persecution. Six of the countries among the top 10 from which refugees have fled have appeared for years on USCIRF’s lists of the world’s worst religious freedom violators, yet this enormous driver of the global displacement crisis gets precious little attention. 

If the world is to make any headway in reducing this crisis, there must first be broad acknowledgement of the crimes that have been and continue to be committed by governments that seek to deny their citizens the fundamental right to believe and live as their consciences dictate, and by violent non-state actors that seek to impose their religious views on others.  

We call on all governments that honor religious freedom to aggressively pursue policies that incentivize religious tolerance and punish religious persecution in these refugee-producing countries. Only when people of all faiths, and none, can coexist peacefully in countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Burma, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea will we see an end to today’s escalating displacement.”  

Information about the world’s worst religious freedom violators and recommendations for U.S. policy can be found in USCIRF’s 2019 Annual Report.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or Kellie Boyle at [email protected] or +1-703-898-6554