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November 29, 2018
Nov 29, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 29, 2018
USCIRF Applauds Passage of H.R. 390 by Congress
WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today applauded the U.S. Congress’s unanimous vote to approve H.R. 390, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act, which was introduced in 2017 by Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA). This bill promotes accountability for crimes committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and provides for the urgent humanitarian and stabilization needs of persecuted religious and ethnic communities. Since June 2017, USCIRF has recommended that the Senate pass H.R. 390.
“I enthusiastically commend the U.S. Congress for taking this important step in support of those communities who have been the targets of genocide in Iraq and Syria,” said USCIRF Chair Tenzin Dorjee. “When I visited Iraq with Vice Chair Kristina Arriaga in March, we witnessed firsthand the immense suffering of Yazidis, Christians, and other religious minorities and listened to their stories of egregious violations of their fundamental rights. These communities desperately need all the help they can get to reconstruct their lives. This bill supports them and also ensures that those responsible for these horrible crimes face some measure of justice.”
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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 threats to 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 Media@USCIRF.gov or Kellie Boyle at kboyle@uscirf.gov or +1-703-898-6554.
August 03, 2020
Aug 3, 2020
This op-ed originally appeared in the Washington Examiner, on August 3, 2020.
By USCIRF Commissioner Nadine Maenza and Mural Ismael.
Tomorrow, August 3rd, the Yazidis will commemorate the sixth anniversary of the genocide committed by the so-called Islamic State, ISIS, that took place in Sinjar, located in northern Iraq. Yazidis will not have the chance to consider how to protect themselves from a future one. Instead, they will be haunted and reminded by the genocide they still endure. However, Yazidis should not be the only ones commemorating their tragedy, we all must.
Despite how the situation may appear, the genocide is not over; more than 2700 Yazidi women, girls, and children remain missing. Fewer than a third of the 400,000 Yazidis have returned, and their homeland of Sinjar is in shambles. They do not feel safe.
It was in the early hours of Sunday, August 3, 2014 when ISIS started its systematic campaign to kill thousands of Yazidi men and nearly one hundred women. Except for several mass graves in Kocho exhumed by Iraqi authorities and UNITAD, most of their remains lay unexhumed on the bare land where the sun of the summers and winds and rain of winters have been washing them away.
While the murder of men and elderly women that did not have “sexual value” to the group was horrific, it was the mass enslavement of more than 6800 Yazidi women, girls, and children that broke the community and brought it down to its knees. What happened to Yazidis is a tragedy for humanity as a whole and will not be healed within six centuries, let alone six years
In Sinjar, Yazidi women and girls have long sought a life with dignity, to marry and have a family, but they were also recently finding how to play a larger role in their conservative community. From almost no girls in school in the 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of Yazidis girls began to receive equal education in the 1990s. Additionally, after decades of negligence and injustice toward this religious minority, it was only in 2003 when the community started a path to economic prosperity. For the first time, thousands of homes were turned from clay to concrete, small factories were built, and towns and villages received electricity and better services.
This all changed when ISIS’ massacre devastated the Yazidi community as the world watched in 2014. After initial denial, international attention increased thanks to the advocacy and resilience of Yazidi advocates, survivors, and supporters around the world. This genocide was recognized by more than ten countries, including United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Armenia, and others. The United Nations Commission on Syria also concluded a genocide was committed, and finally, the UN created an investigative team, UNITAD, which Yazidis hope it will give a legal recognition for the genocide. While a platform for investigation was created with UNITAD, there has been no judicial process, domestically in Iraq or Syria, or internationally, that leads to accountability against perpetrators. More than 20,000 ISIS members remain in prison in Syria alone without a path to accountability. From tens of thousands of Yazidi victims and their families, only a handful have had the opportunity to participate in trial proceedings. So far, only Germany has begun a process to prosecute ISIS capital crimes.
Justice for the Yazidi community does not stop at accountability. The community deserves the right to protection of their homeland as well. It is troubling that the Yazidi areas remain disputed per Article 140 of the Constitution between the governments of Baghdad and Erbil, which the subsequent Iraqi governments have and International community failed to address. It is without a local administration, under threat of Turkish air strikes, and is continually torn apart by the interests of various militia groups. Houses and infrastructure have not been rebuilt. Justice should also have meant a return of two thirds of Yazidi IDPs who continue to endure a challenging life in more than 15 camps in the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. But Yazidis do not only deserve to exist, they deserve to thrive. The progress once made in local education, infrastructure, and the economy illustrates what the Yazidi community in Sinjar is capable of achieving. Before this, however, there must be stability, which means an resolution to local disputes, end of era of militias, immediate ceasing of Turkish airstrikes, and an economic and humanitarian plan.
Yazidis are not ungrateful people, their leaders have acknowledged the support of international community, the Kurdish People who embraced them, the NGOs, and international humanitarian agencies who contributed generously over the past six years and made up the backbone of genocide response.
The Iraqi government, with the support of the United States and the international community, must address issues that still remain in both Sinjar as well as the entire Nineveh Plains, home to Christians, Yazidis, and other religious communities of Iraq. Stabilization and economic prosperity should be a priority if we want to help Iraq build a just society where everyone is treated equally, especially the weakest. The international community should support the Yazidis and other minorities to build resilience in their homeland so that their rich cultures can be preserved. Only then will the Yazidi community be able to rebuild a homeland with opportunities for economic prosperity and a life with dignity.
February 04, 2021
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 religious freedom violations around the globe continues to be a top priority for the United States. While some are critical of the role the U.S. government plays in championing religious freedom globally, there are also others who say, “If not the United States., then who?” In recent years, there have been an emergence of new multilateral entities dedicated to promoting and protecting religious freedom worldwide. Do these entities have the potential to foster a more effective approach to addressing religious freedom challenges around the world?
Knox Thames, an expert on global religious freedom issues who worked at the State Department under both the Obama and Trump administrations, joins Dwight Bashir to discuss the top religious freedom issues facing the Biden administration and offers recommendations for U.S. policy.
Featuring:
Dwight Bashir, Director of Outreach and Policy, USCIRF
Knox Thames, Senior Fellow, Institute for Global Engagement & Visiting Expert, U.S. Institute of Peace
April 21, 2021
Apr 21, 2021
USCIRF Releases 2021 Annual Report with Recommendations for U.S. Policy
No Longer Recommends Three Countries for Special Watch List
Washington, D.C. – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2021 Annual Report documenting developments during 2020, including significant progress in countries such as Sudan. Meanwhile, other nations implemented laws and policies that further target religious communities, and in some cases amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. USCIRF’s 2021 Annual Report provides recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad.
In its report, USCIRF also monitored public health measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and their impact on freedom of religion or belief. In many cases, these measures complied with international human rights standards, but in some countries, already marginalized religious communities faced official and societal stigmatization, harassment, and discrimination for allegedly causing or spreading the virus.
“This past year was challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief. Though some governments took advantage of the restrictions to target specific religious communities, we were encouraged by the positive steps various countries took. For example, as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks, many prisoners of conscience were furloughed or released, such as in Eritrea,” USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin said. “USCIRF will continue to monitor how countries respond to and recover from COVID-19, and whether the loosening of restrictions is fair to people of all faiths and nonbelievers.”
USCIRF’s independence and bipartisanship enables it to unflinchingly identify threats to religious freedom around the world. In the 2021 Annual Report, USCIRF recommends 14 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 December 2020—Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—as well as four others—India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam. For the first time ever, the State Department designated Nigeria as a CPC in 2020, which USCIRF had been recommending since 2009.
The 2021 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 two that the State Department placed on that list in December 2020—Cuba and Nicaragua—as well as 10 others—Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. In 2021, USCIRF is not recommending SWL placement for Bahrain, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan, which were among its SWL recommendations in its 2020 Annual Report. USCIRF has concluded that, although religious freedom concerns remain in all three countries, conditions last year did not meet the high threshold required to recommend SWL status.
The 2021 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 December 2020—al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), and the Taliban.
“In 2020, the Trump administration continued to prioritize international religious freedom. Much progress was made, and our 2021 Annual Report makes recommendations about how Congress and the Executive Branch, now under President Biden, can further advance the U.S. commitment to freedom of religion abroad,” USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins stated. “In order to maintain the crucial momentum of international religious freedom as a U.S. foreign policy priority, USCIRF strongly urges the Biden administration to take a unique action for each country designated as a CPC to provide accountability for religious freedom abuses and to implement the other recommendations contained in our report.”
In addition to chapters with key findings and U.S. policy recommendations for these 26 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 2020, including in countries that do not meet the criteria for CPC or SWL recommendations. These include: COVID-19 and religious freedom; attacks on houses of worship; political unrest leading to religious freedom violations; blasphemy laws; global antisemitism; and China’s international influence on religious freedom and human rights.
“USCIRF’s 2021 Annual Report documents both the deepening of religious divides, and intensified religious persecution and violence during the global pandemics; and the swift and significant progress that can and has been made, as in Sudan, to support and strengthen religious communities of all faiths,” USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava added. “We urge the Biden administration and Congress to champion religious freedom and to center the safety and dignity of religious communities as foreign policy priorities. USCIRF recommends that the administration should immediately increase the annual ceiling for refugees; and definitively and publicly conclude that the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people by the Burmese military constitute genocide and take action accordingly; as the State Department recently determined regarding China’s genocide against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims.”
The report includes two new sections, one highlighting key USCIRF recommendations that the U.S. government has implemented from USCIRF 2020 annual report, and the other addressing human rights violations perpetrated based on the coercive enforcement of interpretations of religion.
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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 Media@USCIRF.gov or Danielle Ashbahian at dashbahian@uscirf.gov or +1-202-702-2778.
April 30, 2021
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 the United States, but did not raise the ceiling from the current 15,000 person low. After receiving pushback from advocacy groups, the administration later stated that President Biden is expected to increase the refugee ceiling for this fiscal year by May 15.
USCIRF is concerned about the historically low refugee ceiling, and has long advocated for a robust resettlement program as a way for the United States to provide safe haven to some of the world’s most vulnerable refugees. Refugee resettlement is a separate program from the process through which individuals apply for asylum at the U.S. border.
USCIRF has reviewed and made recommendations relevant to that process as well as refugee resettlement. USCIRF Director of Research and Policy, Elizabeth Cassidy, joins us to discuss both of these issues.
Check out our Feb 10, 2021 hearing on Refugees Fleeing Religious Persecution
Read USCIRF’s statement calling on the President to increase the refugee ceiling.
Featuring:
Dwight Bashir, Director of Outreach and Policy, USCIRF
Elizabeth Cassidy, Director of Research and Policy, USCIRF