This op-ed originally appeared on Newsweek

By USCIRF Chair Tony Perkins and Vice Chair Gayle Manchin. 

From the coronavirus pandemic to the use of surveillance, freedom of religion or belief is facing a brave new world of global challenges. As the chair and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), we witnessed significant developments in this area throughout 2019. Some severe violators made substantial progress, while some former champions of this fundamental human right experienced worrying backsliding.

Since USCIRF's creation, it has focused on Sudan. Under former President Omar al-Bashir, security forces harassed, detained and attacked Christians and other religious minorities. The previous regime used a public order law to enforce its strict interpretation of sharia law, especially on women. Religious minorities were prosecuted for apostasy.

Since the overthrow of the al-Bashir regime in April 2019, Sudan's transitional government has repealed the public order law and included in the transitional constitution a provision protecting freedom of worship. In December, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok met with us to engage on these issues. In February, a USCIRF delegation traveled to Sudan and witnessed this progress—and the remaining challenges—first-hand.

For 20 years, USCIRF has recommended that the State Department designate Sudan as a "country of particular concern" (or CPC), a category under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for governments guilty of "systematic, ongoing, egregious" violations of religious freedom. That changed with our 2020 Annual Report, released on April 28. Much work remains, but in recognition of Sudan's progress, we now recommend it for the State Department's Special Watch List (or SWL), which is for countries meeting two of the CPC elements.

The other promising story is in Uzbekistan, where the government has long strictly controlled religious activity, imprisoning thousands of Muslims and harassing Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Catholics and other religious minorities. Under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, however, the government has taken significant steps, such as ending raids on religious communities for unregistered activity. In August, it announced it would close the infamous Jasliq Prison, where many religious prisoners were held. Uzbekistan's parliament has also pledged to revise some restrictive laws on religion.

We still have concerns in Uzbekistan, but these steps represent tangible progress. Accordingly, our latest Annual Report recommends Uzbekistan for the SWL, rather than for CPC designation.

By contrast, the situation in India deteriorated drastically in 2019. After the Bharatiya Janata Party was re-elected in May, both the national and state governments introduced new policies targeting the country's Muslim population. In August, the state of Assam issued a National Register of Citizens (NRC), effectively classifying nearly a million Muslim residents as "illegal migrants." In December, Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to provide a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, potentially leaving stateless the Muslims left off the NRC. Muslims are not the only targets. Seventy-eight documented violent incidents against Christians occurred over the past three months alone—and throughout 2019, certain Indian politicians continued to tacitly encourage violence against Christians and other religious minorities. Based on these developments, we felt compelled to recommend that the State Department designate India as a CPC.

We believe that U.S. leadership on religious freedom issues has contributed to the progress in Sudan and Uzbekistan. We encourage the United States to do more to achieve further progress in securing this fundamental human right elsewhere.

Although IRFA requires the U.S. government to take action against any country designated as a CPC, the State Department often reimposes existing sanctions or issues waivers. We urge the government to stop this practice and take different measures against each CPC. U.S. actions must match U.S. values. A good start would be imposing targeted sanctions against foreign officials responsible for religious freedom violations.

Perhaps the most important lesson in 2019 is that change can happen. As conditions on the ground evolve, so will our focus. We have already been assessing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on religious freedom and warning countries to not try to manipulate this crisis to violate this human right. We've also encouraged the release of religious prisoners, especially those in high-risk categories. While the world remains turbulent in many ways and uncertainty in some quarters abounds, one thing that will not change is our singular focus on religious freedom and our advocacy for this fundamental human right.

This op-ed was originally published by Deseret News, on June 4, 2020.

By USCIRF Chair Tony Perkins and Vice Chair Gayle Manchin

Sitting across the table from Sudan’s new prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, in December 2019 in Washington, DC and again in Khartoum in February, we were amazed by the changes his transitional government had made, and planned to make, to a country led for decades by a regime that was one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. After months of protesting in the streets in spite of brutal security forces, Sudan’s people had finally sparked a transition toward a democratic future, with a transitional government that was genuine about reforming oppressive policies, including those designed to persecute individuals because of their religion or belief.

Some may be surprised to learn that a discussion with a foreign head of state about religious freedom was led by political appointees from both the Republican and Democratic parties. As Chair and Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), we were appointed respectively by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Even more, our bipartisan meeting with Prime Minister Hamdok was not an anomaly, but rather the norm when it comes to working on international religious freedom in Washington, DC and globally.

When Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) in the Senate by a vote of 98-0 and in the House, 375-41, the bipartisan support was abundantly clear. Among other things, IRFA created USCIRF, the first and only body of its kind in the world. USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan government agency that monitors religious freedom conditions abroad and is mandated to present policy recommendations to Congress, the Department of State, and the White House. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leaders of both houses of the Congress, with the political party that holds the White House having five seats and the other party having four.  By creating USCIRF and ensuring that its appointees came from both parties, Congress sought to ensure that international religious freedom would remain a bipartisan issue that would not get sidelined.

Congress regularly comes together to create policies to assist vulnerable groups around the world who are violently targeted because of their faith or their nonbelief, including Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Baha’is, and atheists, among many others. International religious freedom is one of the few issues where you will find politicians from both ends of, and all along, the U.S. political spectrum in the same room, advocating the same thing, with equal levels of conviction and passion. The experience of non-governmental organizations focused on international religious freedom is similar and it has been that way for over 20 years.

USCIRF has worked closely with legislators on both sides of the aisle to implement our policy recommendations into law. For example, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 ensures that the U.S. government considers China’s unwillingness to allow U.S. diplomats and journalists to travel to Tibet when deciding whether to grant Chinese diplomats access to all parts of the U.S. The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which just passed both houses of Congress, imposes sanctions and export restrictions related to China’s mass persecution of Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group. What’s more, Members of Congress from both parties have worked closely in recent years with the government of Uzbekistan to support reforms that have led to improved human rights conditions, resulting in the Department of State no longer labeling it a “country of particular concern” for severe religious freedom violations.

In addition, every few years both chambers of Congress in a bipartisan, bicameral manner, come together to reauthorize USCIRF and renew its mandate. USCIRF’s reauthorization multiple times over the past 20 years is a testament to bipartisan commitment across both the executive and legislative branches, and a continued recognition of the importance of USCIRF’s nonpartisan advisory role. USCIRF’s latest recommendations can be viewed in our recently released 2020 Annual Report.

These are just a few examples of how USCIRF and others have worked together to advance international religious freedom on a bipartisan basis. As the Chair and Vice Chair of USCIRF we remain committed to ensuring that our work to further the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief for everyone, everywhere, remains above the partisan fray.