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 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 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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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 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…