FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2020

USCIRF Warns that Forced Sterilization of Uyghur Muslims is Evidence of Genocide

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) warned that the Chinese government’s repressive population control measures against Uyghur and other Muslims—including forced sterilization—might meet the legal criteria for genocide under international law.

“It’s evident from the Chinese government’s own data that the Communist Party’s policies are clearly designed to prevent population growth for the Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Turkic Muslim peoples,” said USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel. “We urge the State Department to investigate whether the Chinese authorities’ deliberate and systematic attempt to genetically reducing the Turkic Muslim population in Xinjiang meets the legal definition for genocide as contemplated in the Genocide Convention. We also call on the U.S. government to introduce a resolution at the U.N. on these crimes that the Chinese Communist Party has committed against the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China.”

Under Article II(d) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” is considered evidence of genocide.

Since 2017, the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping has detained more than a million Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Muslims, often targeting individuals engaged in religious practices, such as growing beards or wearing veils. According to leaked government documents, many individuals were detained because they had too many children. As stated by newly published research, the Chinese government’s sterilization policies have led birth rates in Xinjiang to plummet 24 percent last year. In addition, nearly half a million Muslim children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools, where they have been forced to denounce Islam and speak Mandarin.

“It is absolutely horrifying that the Communist Chinese government is targeting a religious community for forced sterilization in the 21st century,” noted USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer. “We urge President Trump and the U.S. government to swiftly impose targeted sanctions under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act against the officials responsible for this heinous policy.”

In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF called upon the administration to use its authority under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the International Religious Freedom Act to impose targeted sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for severe religious freedom violations, especially Chen Quanguo, the current Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang.

In February 2020, USCIRF released a factsheet explaining how the Chinese government’s new Administrative Measures for Religious Groups could further restrict religious freedom.

###

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 Danielle Ashbahian at [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USCIRF Applauds the U.S. Government Pledge to Support the Democratic Transition in Sudan

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) commends the U.S. government for committing $356.2 million towards development aid and  democratic transition programs in Sudan.

USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins said, “We are encouraged by the  United States’ decision to provide such robust financial support to a government that is committed to reforming its political system and ensuring all Sudanese people are free to practice their faiths. USCIRF urges the U.S. government to allocate a portion of this funding to programs that support comprehensive curricular improvements, legal and constitutional reform, and other transitional justice measures.”

The pledge was made on June 25, 2020 at the Berlin Donor Conference, which was convened to ensure Sudan’s dire economic crisis does not threaten its democratic transition. According to acting USAID administrator John Barsa, the pledge is nearly ten times the development assistance provided to Sudan in 2019.

During his visit to Washington, DC, last December, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stressed to USCIRF the importance of international support for his government to continue to carry out reforms that advance civil liberties and political freedoms.

“The United States, in partnership with other countries across the world, has pledged $1.8 billion in support of  Sudan’s democratic transition,”  said USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava. “As we heard from the Sudanese government, we expect these funds will support further institutional, legal, and educational reforms to enhance religious freedom, and the processes necessary to ensure proper implementation of these (and earlier) reforms in every region of the country.”

In February, USCIRF Vice Chairs Perkins and Bhargava traveled to Sudan to assess religious freedom conditions. Due to the significant progress made by the Sudanese transitional government in 2019 to address the worst religious freedom abuses of the former regime, USCIRF recommended in its 2020 Annual Report that the Department of State maintain Sudan on its Special Watch List (SWL). This was the first time since 2000 that USCIRF had not recommended Sudan for designation as a “country of particular concern” for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.

###

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 Danielle Ashbahian at [email protected].

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2020

USCIRF Expresses Concern about National Security Legislation’s Threat to Religious Freedom in Hong Kong

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed concern about the effect that the Chinese Communist Party’s proposed national security legislation will have on religious freedom conditions in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong has long been living proof that religious freedom and Chinese culture can coexist in harmony—no matter what the Communist Party claims,” noted USCIRF Commissioner Gary Bauer. “This new national security legislation would potentially expand the Chinese Communist Party’s war on faith in the mainland to hundreds of thousands of believers in Hong Kong.”

If the National People’s Congress passes the proposed national security law, it would give the mainland government’s security apparatus jurisdiction over cases “endangering national security,” a crime that mainland authorities have used to target religious freedom advocates. Religious leaders fear the law would lead to a crackdown on the city’s Buddhist, Taoist, Protestant, Catholic, and other religious communities—especially since the head of China’s Hong Kong office, Xia Baolong, oversaw a crackdown against churches in Zhejiang Province.

“The Communist Party has a poor track record of keeping its promises to the people of Hong Kong, and we expect no different for Hong Kong residents of faith under this new law,” USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel added. “We urge the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong to monitor the situation carefully and to report on any increase in religious freedom violations.”

Under the 1985 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Chinese government promised to respect the autonomy of Hong Kong’s legal system, which provides greater protections for human rights than available in the rest of China. The Hong Kong Policy Act and the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 require the U.S. State Department to assess the autonomy of the territory from China. In May, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo certified that Hong Kong no longer qualifies as autonomous.

In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF noted the massive protests in Hong Kong against a proposed extradition law and the risk it would have posed to religious freedom. In February 2020, USCIRF released a factsheet explaining how the Communist Party’s new Administrative Measures for Religious Groups could further restrict religious freedom.

###

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 Danielle Ashbahian at [email protected].