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March 17, 2021
Mar 17, 2021
USCIRF Commemorates Fifth Anniversary of ISIS Genocide Recognition
Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today joins religious communities in Iraq and Syria—including Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims—in remembering the tens of thousands of lives lost to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) atrocities, five years after the U.S. Department of State and Congress declared those crimes genocide.
“We commemorate with heavy hearts the fifth anniversary of this genocide recognition, given the devastating losses that Yazidis, Christians, Shabak, Turkmen, Kaka’is, and others suffered at the hands of ISIS in 2014 and beyond,” USCIRF Vice Chair Anurima Bhargava said. “USCIRF continues to call on the United States and its international partners to spare no effort in continuing to provide humanitarian aid and other forms of assistance to these communities, even as we recognize the irreplaceability of the lives ISIS destroyed through execution, enslavement, sexual assault, and other atrocities.”
USCIRF Commissioner Nadine Maenza added, “Five long years after the U.S. government recognized this genocide, the world must do better in supporting the vulnerable religious and ethnic minority communities for whom this tragedy remains a present and painful reality.” She explained, “For many Yazidis in Iraq, the internally displaced person—or IDP—camps that have served as a crucial refuge since 2014 have also become a purgatory of despair, as suicide rates climb and their Sinjar homeland remains largely in ruins and caught up in territorial and security disputes. Meanwhile, displaced Yazidis continue to face religious persecution, marginalization, and daily violence in neighboring Syria. The United States and its partners cannot stand by while they and other minorities in Iraq and Syria continue to suffer under such existential threats. It is also vital that perpetrators of the violence are prosecuted and held accountable.”
In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department place Iraq on its Special Watch List (SWL) for ongoing and systematic religious freedom violations. It recommended Syria for designation as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.
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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.
February 18, 2021
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 operations Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger that included airstrikes near Sinjar. These attacks have been particularly damaging to the traumatized Yazidi community, who are victims of genocide by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Reports indicate that Turkey is planning military operations in Sinjar, instilling fear in the already vulnerable Yazidi community.
Joining us today to discuss these developments is USCIRF Commissioner Nadine Maenza, who recently traveled to the region to get a deeper understanding of conditions on the ground. She is concerned that what is happening in Sinjar will mirror conditions in Afrin, a city in northern Syria that was occupied by the Turkish military in 2018.
Featuring:
Dwight Bashir, Director of Outreach and Policy, USCIRF
Nadine Maenza, Commissioner, USCIRF
USCIRF's hearing on "Safeguarding Religious Freedom in Northeast Syria" from June 2020 is mentioned in this episode and is available here.
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 28, 2021
May 12
WHEN:
May 12th 10:30am
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May 12th 12:00pm
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Hearing
Ending Genocide:
U.S. Government Genocide Determinations and Next Steps
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Virtual Hearing
Hearing Transcript
Please join the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for a virtual hearing that will highlight how the U.S. government has made the determination to call, or not to call, mass atrocities against religious groups genocide and offer recommendations to enhance U.S. efforts to respond to mass atrocities.
The 1948 Genocide Convention states that genocide occurs when specific acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. The Convention confers obligations on states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. Since the United States ratified the Genocide Convention in 1988, the U.S. Department of State has determined that genocides occurred in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq, Darfur, areas under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and most recently China. Official designations can increase international attention to the crimes, strengthen the case for multilateral pressure on the perpetrators, and bolster efforts for accountability. Genocide determinations are often made only after a thorough and lengthy investigative process.
Today, the Burmese military continues to violently target the mostly Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the Chinese government continues to hold the predominately Muslim Uyghur people in detention camps, enact measures to decrease the population, and actively separate children from their parents. What more can be done? How can the U.S. government more effectively work to halt ongoing mass atrocities against religious and other groups even in the absence of a genocide determination? Witnesses will explain how the U.S. government has made past genocide determinations, explore policy options once a determination has been made, and discuss strategies to prevent and stop mass atrocities against religious groups.
Opening Remarks
- Anurima Bhargava, Chair, USCIRF Written Remarks
- Tony Perkins, Vice Chair, USCIRF Written Remarks
- Todd Buchwald, Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School; Former Ambassador, Office of Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State Written Testimony
- Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director, Free Yezidi Foundation Written Testimony
- Beth Van Schaack, Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights, Stanford Law School; Former Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State Written Testimony
- Daniel Fullerton, Former Counsel, Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG); Co-Author of PILPG report documenting atrocity crimes against the Rohingya Written Testimony
- Wai Wai Nu, Founder and Executive Director, Women’s Peace Network Written Testimony