This op-ed was originally published by The Hill on April 25, 2022.

By USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza and Vice Chair Nury Turkel

As the world is trying to resume some semblance of normalcy, it is abundantly clear that global violations of the fundamental human right of religious freedom persisted during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We watched with alarm as the Taliban took control as the de facto government of Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal last August. Religious communities of all stripes have since faced harassment, detention, and even death due to their faith or beliefs, and years of progress toward more equitable access to education and representation of women and girls have disappeared.  

For the first time since 2001, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has decided to recommend in this year’s annual report that the U.S. State Department designate Afghanistan under Taliban control as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended.  

USCIRF’s 2022 Annual Report, released today, sheds light on the most severe religious freedom concerns abroad, and Afghanistan is only one of many countries in which freedom of religion or belief is under consequential threat.  

Although we removed the Central African Republic (CAR) from last year’s annual report following a reduction of violations in 2020, we were disappointed to observe Central African authorities and their partners committing egregious and ongoing religious freedom violations over the past year—including targeted abductions, torture, and killings of Muslims. These conditions led us to reinstate our recommendation that the U.S. Department of State place CAR on its Special Watch List (SWL).  

We also remain deeply troubled by the dire circumstances in Nigeria, particularly given the State Department’s inexplicable removal of Nigeria as a CPC last year without any justification of significant improvements in religious freedom. Africa’s most populous country of approximately 211 million has remained a hotbed of religious violence against Christians and Muslims, and we again maintain that it should return to CPC status in 2022. 

The use and abuse of restrictive laws to repress religious freedom remains one of our main concerns around the world. A range of countries continued to enforce blasphemy laws, including Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey, with Pakistan persisting as the most frequent enforcer. In neighboring India, the government continued to invoke the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Sedition Law to silence those reporting on and speaking out against abuses targeting religious minorities.   

Despite these concerns and many others across the world, USCIRF has been heartened to find the U.S. government continued to hold international religious freedom (IRF) as a key foreign policy priority.

President Joseph R. Biden maintained many of the international religious freedom-related commitments from the previous administration. That has included the appointment of several key related posts, such as Rashad Hussain as Ambassador at Large for IRF; Deborah Lipstadt as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya as special coordinator for Tibetan issues. 

We were encouraged that the U.S. government implemented several of USCIRF’s recommendations over the last year. The State Department designated Russia as a CPC for the first time, which we have recommended since 2017. Additionally, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed Global Magnitsky sanctions on individuals, both state and non-state actors, who have been responsible for egregious human rights abuses and religious freedom violations in Cuba, China, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Additionally, the Biden administration signed into law the permanent authorization of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act which Congress passed in April 2022.  

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In March 2021 and March 2022, respectively, we also saw the current administration recognize as genocide and crimes against humanity the atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese government against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims, and by the Burmese military against Rohingya Muslims. We urge the United States and like-minded partners to work together to seek accountability for the perpetrators of these crimes going forward.  

As the United States continues to face serious foreign policy challenges this year—from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the ongoing genocides against religious minority communities in China and Burma—we at USCIRF will continue to advocate unceasingly and unflinchingly for the essential right of religious freedom for all people of faith, as well as those who hold no faith, around the world. We will continue to call on the U.S. government to fulfill its commitment to the same—as we have every year since our first annual report 22 years ago. 

According to the Pew Research Center’s most recent global data, Christianity’s diverse set of traditions comprise the single largest religious group on earth, of some 2.3 billion people—or nearly a third of the world’s population. Yet, it has been plainly evident throughout our reporting at USCIRF that many Christian communities around the world face a wide range of hardships for practicing their faith: from social marginalization to governmental harassment to imprisonment to mob violence and even death.

Isaac Six, Director of Advocacy for Open Doors USA—an NGO that advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world—joins us today to explain where Christians face the most severe persecution, and the conditions these believers endure.

Read USCIRF’s latest op-ed on Global Christian Persecution in USA Today

USCIRF Releases 2022 Annual Report with Recommendations for U.S. Policy

 Recommends Afghanistan as Country of Particular Concern

Washington, D.C. – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2022 Annual Report documenting developments during 2021, including significant regress in countries such as Afghanistan and the Central African Republic (CAR). USCIRF’s 2022 Annual Report provides recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad.   

The report also notes USCIRF recommendations implemented by the U.S. government—including the designation of Russia as a country of particular concern, the imposition of targeted sanctions on religious freedom violators, and genocide determinations for atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese government against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims and by the Burmese military against Rohingya Muslims.

“We are disheartened by the deterioration of freedom of religion or belief in some countries— especially Afghanistan under the Taliban’s de facto government since August. Religious minorities have faced harassment, detention, and even death due to their faith or beliefs, and years of progress toward more equitable access to education and representation of women and girls have disappeared,” USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza said. “Meanwhile, USCIRF is encouraged by the Biden administration’s continued prioritization of international religious freedom during its first year. To continue this progress, we strongly urge the administration to implement USCIRF’s recommendations—in particular, to expand its Priority 2 refugee designation to grant access for at-risk religious groups in Afghanistan, and to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern.”

USCIRF’s independence and bipartisanship enables it to unflinchingly identify threats to religious freedom abroad. In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommends 15 countries to the State Department for designation as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) because their governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations.” These include 10 that the State Department designated as CPCs in November 2021: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—as well as five others: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam. For the first time ever, the State Department designated Russia as a CPC in 2021, which USCIRF had been recommending since 2017. Regrettably, the State Department removed Nigeria as a CPC though it had been added the previous year and religious freedom conditions remain dire.

The 2022 Annual Report also recommends 12 countries for placement on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) based on their governments’ perpetration or toleration of severe violations. These include three that the State Department placed on that list in November 2021: Algeria, Cuba, and Nicaragua—as well as nine others: Azerbaijan, CAR, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. In 2021, USCIRF removed CAR from its SWL recommendations because incidents of religious targeting and violence had decreased during 2020, but these trends have since been reversed.

The 2022 Annual Report further recommends to the State Department seven non-state actors for redesignation as “entities of particular concern” (EPCs) for systematic, ongoing, egregious violations. The State Department designated all seven of these groups as EPCs in November 2021: al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP or ISIS-West Africa), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).

“Throughout the past year, the U.S. government continued to condemn abuses of religious freedom and hold perpetrators accountable through targeted sanctions and other tools at its disposal. Moving forward, the United States should take additional steps to support freedom of religion or belief around the world. USCIRF’s 2022 Annual Report makes recommendations on how Congress and the Executive Branch can further advance this universal, fundamental human right,” USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel stated.

In addition to chapters with key findings and U.S. policy recommendations for these 27 countries, the annual report describes and assesses U.S. international religious freedom policy overall. The report also highlights important global developments and trends related to religious freedom during 2021—including in countries that do not meet the criteria for CPC or SWL recommendations. These include: the COVID-19 pandemic and religious freedom, blasphemy and hate speech law enforcement, transnational repression, religious intolerance in Europe, deteriorating religious freedom conditions in South Asia, and political upheaval that raises religious freedom concerns.

The report also includes sections highlighting key USCIRF recommendations that the U.S. government has implemented from USCIRF’s 2021 Annual Report, discussing human rights violations perpetrated based on the coercive enforcement of interpretations of religion, and providing details on individuals included in USCIRF’s Freedom or Religion or Belief (FoRB) Victims List and Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project.

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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 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].