FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2018

State Department Names the World’s Worst Violators of Religious Freedom

Chairman Mark praises State’s designation of some countries but claims the “list falls short of what is needed”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomed the State Department’s naming of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPCs) for severe religious freedom violations.  This group comprises nations that violate religious freedom in a “systematic, ongoing, egregious” manner and includes Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The State Department announcement may be found here.

USCIRF’s Chairman Daniel Mark said that “The designation of these countries is a key step in ensuring continued U.S. engagement in support of international religious freedom.  Although USCIRF agrees with the 10 countries on the State Department’s list, it does not go far enough.  Secretary Tillerson should have also designated the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.”

The State Department also, for the first time, announced its “Special Watch List” -- a new category created by the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016.  The Special Watch List is for countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom but may not rise to the level of CPC.  The department placed only Pakistan on this list. 

Chairman Mark said that “Pakistan continues to harass its religious minorities, has state-sanctioned discrimination against groups such as the Ahmadis, and tolerates extra-judicial violence in the guise of opposing blasphemy.  As USCIRF has said for many years, Pakistan should be designated by the State Department as a CPC. Given the strong stance that President Trump has taken on Pakistan recently, the failure to designate Pakistan as a CPC this year comes as a surprise and disappointment.”

USCIRF commends Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for the excellent statement he made accompanying the August release of the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report. There, he stated that religious freedom is a “core American value…and universal human right,” commenting further that it is a “human rights priority” for the Trump Administration.  USCIRF was highly encouraged by his words and urges the Secretary of State to make additional CPC designations consistent with that bold and forceful statement.

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) mandated that the State Department make CPC designations and that USCIRF provide the department recommendations on which countries should be on the list.  In April 2017, USCIRF recommended that 16 countries be designated CPCs: Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

The Frank Wolf Act also required designations for non-state actors engaged in particularly severe religious freedom violations as “entities of particular concern” (EPCs).  In April 2017, USCIRF recommended that the Administration designate the following entities as EPCs: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria; the Taliban in Afghanistan; and al-Shabaab in Somalia. The Administration did not make its EPC designations at this time, but USCIRF looks forward to working with the White House and the State Department on expeditiously identifying EPCs and the tools to use against them.

Read USCIRF’s 2017 Annual Report here.

[1/8/18:  Read the Administration's transmittal materials to Congress here.]

[1/11/18:  Read the official designations in the Federal Register here.]

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications ([email protected]/ +1-202-786-0611).  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 2, 2018

State Department Announces the First Global Magnitsky Sanctions

Chairman Mark states that “the United States should continue to be a leader in the fight against human rights abusers”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) praised the U.S. government for taking action pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.  “Global Magnitsky sanctions against individuals who have committed gross human rights abuses are an important new tool in the U.S. government’s human rights toolbox,” said USCIRF’s Chairman Daniel Mark.  “USCIRF congratulates the White House, the State Department, and the Treasury Department for working together to implement this first set of sanctions.  Other countries are passing similar acts, and the United States should continue to be a leader in the fight against human rights abusers.”

USCIRF has long called for targeted sanctions against violators of religious freedom.  In its 2017 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the Administration “use targeted tools against specific officials, agencies, and military units identified as having participated in or being responsible for human rights abuses, including particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”  Tools that could be used include the Global Magnitsky Act, the Treasury Department’s “specially designated nationals” (SDN) list, and other provisions under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

Specific to Burma, USCIRF praises the inclusion of General Maung Maung Soe in the list of sanctioned individuals.  As the former head of the Burmese Army’s Western Command, he oversaw military operations in Rakhine State and myriad human rights abuses that resulted in more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the country since 2016. 

USCIRF Vice Chairwoman Kristina Arriaga traveled in November to Burma with Commissioner Tenzin Dorjee.  “I applaud the Secretary of State for calling the situation in Rakhine State an ‘ethnic cleansing’,” stated Arriaga.  “The systematic, methodical, and comprehensive campaign against the Rohingya, in particular, calls for action by the United States and the international community.  Sanctioning General Maung Maung Soe for his responsibility as commander is well deserved.”

Read USCIRF’s 2017 Annual Report and the Burma chapter (Burmese translation).

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications ([email protected]/ +1-202-786-0611).  

People love lists. And when those lists are in the news, people generally want to be on them: The Top Ten. Who’s Who. Best Dressed.

But no one wants to be on our lists. 

That is because our job, as members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), is to list the countries responsible for perpetrating or tolerating the world’s worst violations of religious freedom. 

These lists, mandated by Congress, are the centerpiece of our annual recommendations for promoting religious freedom abroad through U.S. foreign policy. From there, our lists go to the State Department, which must determine whether to adopt our recommendations for designating the world’s worst violators as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs).

Thanks to new legislation, the designation of CPCs by the State Department — which did not occur every year and which has not happened since October 2016 — is expected in November. And we, as chairman and vice chairwoman of USCIRF, very much hope that the Trump administration’s list of CPCs will look a lot like ours.

Unfortunately, the State Department designations, which were required by law no later than Nov. 13, still have not been made. Failing to designate CPCs tells the violators of religious freedom around the world that the United States is looking away. The State Department should make such designations without delay.

In our annual report, released in April, USCIRF recommended that 16 countries be designated CPCs: Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Unfortunately, since that time, there has been plenty more bad news to confirm the judgments on our list: Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the Jehovah’s Witnesses, wiping out the legal existence of an entire religion; Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Burma in the hundreds of thousands as that country’s military leaders conduct what United Nations officials have described as ethnic cleansing; and Pakistan continues its persecution of the Ahmadiyya community, particularly through the use and abuse of blasphemy laws (including death sentences) that have no place in the 21st century.

Meanwhile, USCIRF commends the Trump administration’s nomination of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. If confirmed before the CPC designations are made, Gov. Brownback’s first priority should be to see all 16 countries designated as CPCs by the State Department.

For now, let us look at just three. 

Russia: This year is the first time USCIRF ever recommended that Russia be designated as a CPC — one of the worst of the worst when it comes to religious freedom violations. We did not come to this conclusion lightly, and Russian actions since have only reinforced our position. 

In outlawing the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Russia absurdly claimed that this pacifist, non-political group was a threat under Russia’s anti-extremism laws. The Witnesses can no longer proselytize, their organization’s property is subject to seizure, they face sanction for gathering to worship, and they now occupy a category of “extremists” with neo-Nazis and jihadists.

Another target of Russia’s attacks is Scientologists. After the Supreme Court ruling against the Witnesses, Russia’s Federal Security Bureau arrested, detained and interrogated five Scientologist leaders in St. Petersburg: Anastasiya Terentyeva, Sakhib Aliev, Ivan Matsytski, Galina Shurinova, and Konstantia Esaulkova. Alleging crimes related to “commercial activity,” these arrests make it clear the Supreme Court ruling against the Witnesses simply cleared the way for more harassment of minority groups.

Moreover, Russia has the dubious distinction of being a country that not only oppresses its religious minorities — it also exports such oppression, as is evidenced by the treatment

of religious minorities in Russian-occupied Ukraine and Crimea. 

Burma: Burma’s Rohingya Muslim population has been called the most persecuted religious minority in the world. Now that truth is being underlined — in ink throughout the world’s headlines and in blood on the earth, as more than half a million have fled for their lives. They flee burned villages and slaughtered families. They flee barefoot over barbed wire and landmines. Now is surely not the time for the U.S. to reverse its longstanding designation of Burma as a CPC.

Pakistan: A U.S. ally in counterterrorism yet also a supporter of extremism in many forms, Pakistan is a conundrum for U.S. policymakers. On religious freedom grounds, however, the issue is clear: Pakistan is among the world’s worst violators. Its blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws are indefensible, and, through acts of commission and omission, the government deserves blame for the virulence and violence against the Ahmadiyya community throughout Pakistani society. 

And the Ahmadis are but one notable example of religious persecution in Pakistan. For years, the State Department has declined to take up our recommendation, but we believe that the new Trump administration will take a principled stand and finally designate Pakistan a CPC.

Also thanks, to new legislation, USCIRF recommended this year for the first time three non-state actors for designation as “entities of particular concern” (EPCs): the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria; the Taliban in Afghanistan; and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

The administration does not need to make its designations of EPCs in November, but there is no time to waste. We look forward to working with the White House and the State Department on identifying EPCs and the tools to use against them.

For now, the administration can make a strong start in advancing international religious freedom by naming those 16 countries as countries of particular concern. 

Daniel Mark and Sandra Jolley are, respectively, the chairman and vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.