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January 20, 2015 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This January marks the eighth anniversary of the illegal removal of Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios from his position as head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the country’s largest religious community. 

“The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) vehemently condemns the illegal removal from office and continued house arrest of Patriarch Antonios.  The Patriarch also suffers from severe diabetes and deteriorating health and has been denied medical assistance. We call on the Eritrean government immediately to release Patriarch Antonios and the more than 2,000 people imprisoned for their religious beliefs. Religious freedom is a fundamental, universal human right. Unfortunately, this anniversary reminds us that these rights, as well as other human rights, have been denied to the people of Eritrea for more than two decades,” said USCIRF Chair Lantos Swett. 

Eritrean authorities on January 13, 2006 removed Patriarch Antonios from his church position for his refusal to comply with government orders to excommunicate 3,000 parishioners who had opposed the government and for his call to release political prisoners.  One year later, on January 20, 2007, authorities confiscated Patriarch Antonios’ personal pontifical insignia.  On May 27, 2007, the government illegally replaced Patriarch Antonios with Bishop Dioscoros of Mendefera, and then forcibly removed him from his home and placed him under house arrest at another residence. 

President Isaias Afweki has ruled Eritrea since 1993 and his regime is among the most repressive in the world.  Religious prisoners are subject to torture and beatings and are pressured to renounce their faith.  Released religious prisoners report having been confined in 20-foot metal shipping containers or underground barracks and having endured extreme temperature fluctuations.  Since 2002, the Eritrean government has registered only four religious communities, the (Coptic) Orthodox Church of Eritrea, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Evangelical Church of Eritrea, and maintains tight controls over their internal operations and activities.  No other religious group has been approved and without such approval no group legally can hold public religious activities. 

USCIRF since 2004 has recommended, and the State Department has designated, Eritrea as a “country of particular concerns” (CPC), for its “systematic, ongoing and egregious” violations of religious freedom.

For more information about USCIRF’s work on Eritrea, please view the 2014 Annual Report here.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is deeply disturbed by the news that a Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, was publicly flogged 50 times today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as part of a punishment for a blasphemy conviction.  USCIRF has long followed Mr. Badawi’s case, expressed its grave concern, and called for his release.

“Today, Raif Badawi was the victim of a cruel and barbaric act carried out by the Saudi justice system – unfortunately, business as usual in the Kingdom.  And for nothing more than creating an online forum for diverse views to be expressed freely,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos-Swett.

In May 2014, a Saudi appeals court sentenced Mr. Badawi to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes, and fined him $1 million SR ($266,000 USD) for, among other charges, insulting Islam and religious authorities.  In July 2013, the court sentenced Badawi to 600 lashes and seven years in prison and his website was shut down.  An appeals court overturned that verdict, and the retrial resulted in the harsher sentence.  The current sentence calls for Mr. Badawi to be lashed 50 times a week for 20 consecutive weeks.

“The Commission welcomed a statement yesterday by the U.S. Department of State urging the Saudi government to cancel the flogging and to review Mr. Badawi’s case,” said Chair Lantos-Swett.  “Based on the facts of the case, the Commission joins the State Department in urging the Saudi government to cease any further lashings, and we also reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Badawi.  Mr. Badawi is a prisoner of conscience who simply exercised his internationally-guaranteed rights of freedom of religion and expression,” said Lantos-Swett. 

Mr. Badawi, the founder and editor of the Free Saudi Liberals website, was arrested in June 2012 in Jeddah and charged with crimes including apostasy and “insulting Islam” through electronic channels.  In January 2013, a Saudi court chose not to pursue the apostasy charge, which carries the death penalty.  Last year Mr. Badawi's lawyer, Waleed Abu al-Khair, was sentenced by the newly created anti-terror court to 15 years in jail after being found guilty of various trumped-up charges related to his work as a human rights defender.

The U.S. has designated Saudi Arabia for 10 years as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.  Although Saudi Arabia has been designated a CPC since 2004, an indefinite waiver on taking any action in consequence of the CPC designation (which is an option under the International Religious Freedom Act) has been in place since 2006.  

In its 2014 Annual Report, the Commission recommended that Saudi Arabia continue to be named a CPC.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

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December 22, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today welcomed the UN General Assembly’s passage on December 18 of a resolution that condemns North Korea’s “ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” and transmits a UN report on these violations to the Security Council.  The UN’s annual resolution on human rights in North Korea passed by a 116-20 vote, with 53 abstentions. 

“North Korea is one of the world’s most repressive regimes, with a deplorable record on human rights and religious freedom,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, USCIRF Chair.  “Many have been arrested, tortured, and executed, and thousands are imprisoned in North Korea’s notorious penal labor camps, including refugees wrongly repatriated from China.  The UN General Assembly acted appropriately by overwhelmingly approving a resolution that calls global attention to North Korea’s gross violation of rights.”

The resolution recommends targeted sanctions against those responsible for human rights abuses. Further, it calls for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court. Both recommendations are new additions to a resolution that the General Assembly has passed annually for nearly a decade.  They are part of the UN Commission of Inquiry’s February report which details the North Korean government’s grave human rights abuses and condemns North Korea for having no “parallel in the contemporary world.”  The report found “an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association.”

“USCIRF commends those willing to stand up for human rights in North Korea and around the world.  Those countries that refuse to condemn North Korea are on the wrong side of both history and humanity.  North Korea must be held accountable for its longstanding human rights violations,” said Lantos Swett.

North Korea’s government severely restricts religious freedom other than activities of officially recognized groups.  Those attempting to practice their faith outside these officially sanctioned channels -- such as through underground churches -- face arrest, beatings, torture or death.  Religious prisoners in North Korea’s infamous penal labor camps – who constitute as many as 15,000 out of the estimated 150,000-200,000 total prisoners – reportedly are treated worse than other inmates and are subject to abuse to compel forced renunciations of faith.  While North Korea is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, among other international treaties, the government clearly neither recognizes nor respects these obligations in principle or practice.

USCIRF’s 2014 Annual Report recommends North Korea be designated a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its systematic, egregious and ongoing religious freedom violations, a recommendation the Commission has consistently made for more than a decade.  The U.S. Department of State has designated North Korea as a CPC repeatedly since 2001, most recently in July 2014.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.