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May 7, 2013
USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett gave the following remarks at a conference, cosponsored by USCIRF and the National Endowment for Democracy on May 7, 2013
Introduction
Thank you for that kind introduction.
It…
Oct 9, 2020
Welcome to USCIRF's new series! In USCIRF Spotlight, we discuss major topics in the news and explore how they impact religious freedom around the globe. For this week's episode, listen to what our…
Oct 16, 2020
Welcome to USCIRF's new series! In USCIRF Spotlight, we discuss major topics in the news and explore how they impact religious freedom around the globe. For this week's episode, listen to what our…
Oct 23, 2020
What started as an already concerning situation for religious minorities in Iran has grown even more concerning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find out what the situation looks like for the groups…
Oct 30, 2020
Sudan has been in the news most recently with the announcement by the United States government of its intent to remove Sudan from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. In this week's USCIRF Spotlight, we explore…
Nov 17, 2020
The United Nations system has several structures and entities that were created to address human rights concerns globally, many of which are relevant to universal right to freedom of religion or…
Nov 20, 2020
The State Department has designated Pakistan as a Country of Particular Concern since 2018, but it has not taken any action as a consequence of that designation and has continued to violate…
Dec 7, 2020
There are 84 countries across the globe with criminal blasphemy laws on the books as of 2020. While only a handful of countries enforce these laws, there are still 84 countries in which a…
Dec 15, 2020
Several religious groups, including followers of Judaism and Islam, mandate that animals are uninjured (unstunned) prior to killing. However, nearly a third of European countries limit…
Dec 30, 2020
Since it's independence in 1984, Brunei has operated with a dual legal system: one secular and one Shari’a, the latter only enforceable for Bruneian Muslims. However, the Syariah Penal Code Order 2013 blurs…
Jan 15, 2021
In December 2020, the U.S. Department of State designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the first time ever due to systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious…
Jan 22, 2021
Targeting of religious minorities in Russia, mass atrocities in China, Nigeria as a country of particular concern, and Antisemitism on the rise worldwide. The events of 2020 cast a long…
Jan 29, 2021
China’s mistreatment and abuse of Uyghurs and other religious minorities have been well-documented for years by USCIRF, the United Nations, and human rights organizations around the world. In spite of…
Feb 4, 2021
As the Biden administration begins to formulate its broader human rights policy, USCIRF highlights several priority countries when it comes to international religious freedom. Condemning and preventing…
Feb 12, 2021
Russia is currently experiencing ongoing, widespread anti-corruption protests. These protests demonstrate the largest challenge to government control in almost a decade. Meanwhile, the State Duma…
Feb 18, 2021
In recent years, northern Iraq has become a battleground for Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In June 2020, Turkey escalated their attacks in the region, announcing military…
Feb 25, 2021
On February 1, 2021, the Burmese military declared the results of the November 2020 democratic elections to be invalid, enacted a one-year state of emergency, and detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and…
Mar 5, 2021
Santería is a syncretic religion that incorporates elements of Catholicism with the religion of the Yoruba people, who were brought as slaves to Cuba from the Congo basin and West Africa in the 16th century.
While…
Mar 11, 2021
There have been notable improvements to religious freedom conditions in Uzbekistan in recent years. The government’s ongoing effort to revise the restrictive 1998 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious…
Mar 19, 2021
Egypt has historically faced many challenges to religious freedom. There has been recurring violence and discrimination against Coptic Christians, who represent 10-15% of the population, as well as other…
Mar 26, 2021
In some countries around the world, religion-based laws are used by governments to impose capital punishment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons. All of the 10 countries…
Apr 1, 2021
In a public statement on March 27, 2021, the Chinese government imposed a travel ban on USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin and Vice Chair Tony Perkins and prohibited any Chinese citizens or institutions from doing…
Apr 9, 2021
Pancasila is a founding concept of Indonesia, comprising of five principles: monotheism, civilized humanity, national unity, deliberative democracy, and social justice. This concept came about at the onset of…
Apr 16, 2021
Bilateral relations between the United States and Vietnam has grown increasingly cooperative since 1995. The two countries have built strong economic, political, and security partnerships. Despite this…
Apr 22, 2021
USCIRF released its 2021 Annual Report documenting developments over the past year, and providing policy recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad. In its…
Apr 30, 2021
The program to resettle refugees to the United States has existed since 1980, with strong bipartisan support. Earlier this month, President Biden signed an emergency declaration to speed up refugee admissions into…
May 6, 2021
Since 1979 Iran’s government has shown a consistent disregard for the rights of religious minority communities who run afoul of the government’s narrow interpretation of Shi’a Islam. Even the majority Shi’a Muslim population must adhere…
May 14, 2021
The central Sahel region of West Africa is currently home to an extremely complex and fluid landscape of Islamist insurgent actors that stem from both locally grown and foreign movements. Several violent insurgent…
May 20, 2021
It’s been 50 years since the Turkish government closed the Greek Orthodox Theological School of Halki, also known as the Halki Seminary. The school continues to be unable to educate or train clergy in a country…
May 27, 2021
Blasphemy laws criminalize expression that insults or offends religious doctrines. Such laws are often used to restrict freedom of religion or belief. As of 2020, 84 countries still had blasphemy laws. The severity…
Jun 4, 2021
For the first time in years, Bahrain was not included in the list of countries that USCIRF recommends for the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL). The government of Bahrain has made incremental improvements…
Jun 11, 2021
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The Special Rapporteur identifies existing and emerging obstacles to the…
Jun 17, 2021
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) mandates USCIRF to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. In addition to making recommendations, USCIRF’s mandate…
Jun 25, 2021
Ethiopia has been going through a democratic transition amidst a civil war that broke out in Tigray at the end of 2020. In November of last year, a massacre took place in Tigray that was slow to be reported in…
Jul 2, 2021
On July 2, 1993 a mob set fire to the Madimak Hotel in Sivas, Turkey—where a group of prominent Alevi writers, poets, and thinkers had gathered. Reports show 37 people died in what became known as the Sivas (or…
Jul 9, 2021
In 2015, USCIRF for the first time recommended the Central African Republic (CAR) be designated by the State Department a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious…
Jul 23, 2021
Egypt is home to over 100 million people—of which the majority identify as Sunni Muslim with a significant Coptic Christian minority. A variety of smaller religious minorities also call Egypt home such as Baha’is,…
Jul 27, 2021
Cuba’s government has long been responsible for violating its citizens right to freedom of religion or belief. In its 2021 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department again place Cuba on its Special…
Aug 6, 2021
The Kazakhstani government is implementing promising reforms that could make Kazakhstan Central Asia’s leading example of religious freedom. USCIRF has recommended the U.S. State Department place…
Aug 19, 2021
We have seen a significant deterioration in religious freedom conditions in South Asia in recent years. Blasphemy cases, forced conversions, attacks on houses of worship, hate speech, and violence targeting…
Aug 25, 2021
On August 25, 2017, the Burmese military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a genocidal campaign in Rakhine State against the largely Muslim Rohingya community. The United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism…
Sep 2, 2021
For the past two years, USCIRF has recommended that India be designated a Country of Particular of Concern (CPC) by the State Department due the government’s promotion of Hindu nationalist policies resulting in…
Sep 10, 2021
Islam plays a significant role in Africa’s past and present, with at least 500 million Muslims living in Africa today. While many Muslims in Africa practice their faith in peace and harmony, across the region some…
Sep 17, 2021
When Afghanistan was under Taliban control in 1996-2001, the Taliban discriminated against and violently persecuted the Hazara Shi’a community—which they labeled as “heretical.” Subsequently, the Hazara community…
Sep 24, 2021
Since 2009, USCIRF has recommended that the U.S. State Department designate Nigeria a country of particular concern, or CPC, for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations. In December…
Sep 30, 2021
For many years, USCIRF has been deeply concerned about religious freedom conditions in Central Asia, and more recently the impact of the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan on the surrounding region.
Since 2012…
Oct 8, 2021
Saudi Arabia has made some reforms to select polices impacting religious freedom, including improvements to its textbooks. Nevertheless, there are still several deeply rooted issues that undermine the credibility of…
Oct 15, 2021
Cemeteries are sacred sites that are of great spiritual, cultural, and historical significance to many religious and ethnic groups. These holy sites are governed by religious laws and customs that dictate the…
Oct 22, 2021
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community was founded in 1889 in Punjab, India and today has an estimated tens of millions of members globally. Because of the differences between Ahmadiyya beliefs and beliefs in Sunni and Shi…
Oct 29, 2021
USCIRF is deeply concerned about religious freedom conditions in the Russian Federation, which have rapidly deteriorated in recent years as the government increasingly mistreats “traditional” religious communities…
Nov 5, 2021
In recent years, Algerian authorities have shown more hostility towards religious minorities, forcibly closing dozens of Protestant churches and prosecuting Ahmadiyya Muslims for gathering without authorization for…
Nov 12, 2021
Malaysia has experienced unprecedented political instability in recent years. During this time, Malaysian authorities from various political parties in several states and the federal government have continued to pursue policies to further…
Nov 16, 2021
The United Nations marks November 16 each year as the International Day for Tolerance. Religious tolerance is one key component of tolerance overall. Governments in the Middle East have increasingly espoused a doctrine of religious tolerance…
Nov 24, 2021
Last month, we released a new report titled “Uzbekistan’s Religious and Political Prisoners: Addressing a Legacy of Repression.” The report estimates that more than 2,000 individuals remain imprisoned by the…
Dec 3, 2021
From 1992-1995, Bosnia endured a brutal ethno-religious war, as Bosnian Serbs ethnically cleansed their Muslim neighbors in the east of the country. The 1995 Dayton Accords, brokered by the United States, ended the…
Dec 10, 2021
Religious freedom conditions in Turkey continue to follow a disappointing, negative trajectory. The Hagia Sophia conversion, the continued closure of the Halki Seminary, government meddling in the internal affairs…
Dec 17, 2021
Pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the State Department is required to issue annual designations for the most egregious violators of religious freedom. In advance of these…
Dec 21, 2021
The continued systematic enforcement of blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws have resulted in the discrimination and persecution of religious minority communities. In 2021 alone, there have been several examples of…
Jan 21, 2022
Across central and eastern Africa there are many dynamics at play, including political crises and violent insurgencies, both of which pose challenges to freedom of religion or belief. These trends and developments…
Jan 28, 2022
The situation for the Christian community in Afghanistan has grown ever more perilous since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. There have been accounts of the Taliban going door to door seeking…
Feb 4, 2022
The government of Nicaragua, under the leadership of President Daniel Ortega, has a history of persecuting Catholic clergy, worshipers, and organizations as well as Protestant institutions especially since religious leaders provided sanctuary…
Feb 11, 2022
Several Western governments joined the U.S. in diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics amid the outcry over China’s human rights and religious freedom abuses. Nevertheless, the lack of international solidarity…
Feb 25, 2022
Many of the religious communities that call Iraq home have suffered from conflict and displacement in recent decades. The civil war in Iraq in the 2000s led large numbers of Christians and other small religious…
Mar 4, 2022
*Special note: This podcast was recorded on March 3, 2022 and only reflects the events that have occurred up to this date*
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world and created a humanitarian…
Mar 10, 2022
*Special note: This podcast was recorded on March 8, 2022 and only reflects the events that have occurred up to this date*
The Russian government has long used religious freedom violations in its efforts to…
Mar 18, 2022
Founded in 19th century Persia—present day Iran—the Baha’i faith is the second most widespread religion in the world and has communities in most territories and countries across the globe. However, several…
Apr 1, 2022
The Rohingya community in Burma have been targeted by the Burmese military (known as the Tatmadaw) with mass killings and rape since 2017, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the country. Since the military coup…
Apr 8, 2022
Article 18 of both the United Nations Human Rights Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects not only the right to believe in and practice a religion and to change religion, but…
Apr 22, 2022
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…
Apr 26, 2022
On April 25, 2022, USCIRF released its 2022 Annual Report, which documents developments in international religious freedom from 2021. The report provides recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion…
May 6, 2022
Since 2020, USCIRF has recommended that India be designated a Country of Particular of Concern, or CPC, due to the Indian government’s promotion of Hindu nationalism, and engagement and facilitation of systematic,…
May 16, 2022
To combat the human rights and religious freedom violations that have occurred as a result of online hate speech, some social media companies now regulate speech on their platforms. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and…
May 20, 2022
Expedited Removal is the U.S. immigration law process that allows officers in the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, to quickly deport noncitizens who arrive at U.S. ports of entry or cross the border without…
Jun 3, 2022
Uzbekistan is one of a handful of countries that has seen dramatic improvements for religious freedom in recent years; however, religious communities are still experiencing high levels of government regulation and…
Jun 10, 2022
Iran has gone to great lengths to arrest and detain religious minorities, including Christians, Baha’is, Sunni Muslims, Sufis, and spiritualists. The Iranian government has taken it a step further and also targeted…
Jun 16, 2022
USCIRF began monitoring religious freedom conditions in Central African Republic (CAR) in 2013 when the country descended into civil conflict. After seven years of recommending that CAR be designated a country of…
Jun 23, 2022
Next week, from June 28 to June 30, the second annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit will be held in Washington, DC. The IRF Summit brings together a diverse coalition of NGOs and individuals from all…
Jul 1, 2022
On July 5 and 6, the British government will be hosting the 2022 International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in London. The conference will bring together government, civil society,…
Jul 7, 2022
This past spring, USCIRF staff traveled to Turkey and met with religious and nonbelief communities across the country. Numerous issues continue to negatively impact their freedom of religion or belief, including an…
Jul 14, 2022
Last month, USCIRF traveled to Abuja, Nigeria and met with Nigerian and U.S. government officials, religious communities, civil society representatives, and human rights defenders to assess religious freedom…
Jul 22, 2022
Several major political events occurred in South Asia over the last year. The Taliban, whom USCIRF has recommended for years as an “Entity of Particular Concern” (EPC), took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.…
Jul 28, 2022
USCIRF is mandated by Congress to make independent policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress that would help improve religious freedom around the globe. Each year, USCIRF proposes…
Aug 4, 2022
In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale and unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine, falsely claiming that it aimed to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the country. While many people are broadly aware of the…
Aug 11, 2022
Malaysia maintains a unique dual legal system divided into civil and religious courts. In recent decades, the influence of these religious courts, which are based on the Shaf’i school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence…
Aug 19, 2022
Sri Lanka is an ethnically and religiously diverse country but has had a history of intercommunal violence, most recently heightened in the decade following the end of a civil war in 2009. Conflict among the…
Aug 25, 2022
August 25 marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Burmese military’s genocidal campaign against the Rohingya people. The violence resulted in thousands of Rohingya dead, hundreds of thousands internally…
Sep 2, 2022
In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the U.S. Department of State redesignate China as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious…
Sep 9, 2022
Since 2020, USCIRF has recommended that Nicaragua be included on the State Department’s Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom. In 2022, the Nicaraguan government has greatly intensified its…
Sep 16, 2022
In 2018, Kazakhstan arrested a group of men for participating in a WhatsApp group chat about Islam and sentenced them to multiple years in prison on fictitious terrorism and incitement-related charges. Last fall,…
Sep 23, 2022
Since 2014, the U.S. Department of State has designated Turkmenistan as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations. After Turkmenistan’s…
Oct 11, 2022
On September 16th, Iran’s morality police arrested 22-year old Mahsa Amini for wearing improper hijab. The morality police reportedly beat Amini until she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and a stroke. Upon learning…
Oct 14, 2022
In April 2017, the Russian Federation banned Jehovah’s Witnesses as an “extremist” organization. In the five years since that designation, law enforcement authorities across Russia have made it a regular practice to raid, detain, and arrest…
Oct 21, 2022
Seven out of ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations have blasphemy laws currently enshrined in their legal codes. USCIRF’s recent issue update reviews these blasphemy laws and their enforcement within this…
Oct 27, 2022
To commemorate this year’s International Religious Freedom Day and the 24th Anniversary of the enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, USCIRF reflects on the important role civil society plays…
Nov 4, 2022
Since 2014, when ISIS launched its genocidal campaign against the Yazidis—a minority ethno-religious group within the Kurdish-majority areas of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, as well as in Armenia–hundreds of…
Nov 10, 2022
Tajikistan’s population is majority Sunni Muslim, with a small Shi’a Muslim community which primarily consists of ethnic Pamiris located in the mountainous eastern part of the country known as the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO).…
Nov 18, 2022
More than a decade after the onset of Syria’s civil war, the conflict continues with multiple state and non-state actors vying for power. Today, one of the most notable non-state actors is the militant Islamist…
Nov 25, 2022
Alevis constitute the largest religious minority in Turkey and have faced persistent obstacles to the exercise of their religious freedom. In October 2022, the Turkish government announced its plan to create a new state-run Alevi institution—…
Dec 6, 2022
The third annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit will be held in Washington, DC on January 31-February 1, 2023. The IRF Summit is an annual civil society conference that seeks to create a coalition of organizations to work…
Dec 9, 2022
In November 2022, USCIRF visited Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, to assess the current conditions and issues that Burmese Rohingya refugees are facing. The Rohingya community, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from Burma, have long fled…