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January 31, 2018
Jan 31, 2018
This Op-Ed appeared originally in the Atlantic Council's blog, UkraineAlert, on January 31, 2018.
By Clifford D. May and Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
(Atlantic Council) - In 2017, for the first time ever, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Russia be designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the religious repression occurring there and for its exportation of such repression to Ukraine. USCIRF’s primary role is to monitor countries engaging in or tolerating "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” and to recommend those countries that should be designated as CPCs. CPC designations open the door to a wide array of possible sanctions, though implementation is at the discretion of the State Department. Even without sanctions, the designation alone serves as a powerful signal to religious freedom violators of US disapproval. In its most recent announcement of CPC designations on January 4, however, the State Department did not include Russia.
In December, we traveled to Ukraine to learn more about the conditions of religious freedom in the Russian-occupied areas of Crimea and the Donbas. What we saw and heard confirmed the reality of Russian persecution and harassment of religious minorities in Russian-occupied Luhansk and Donetsk, the so-called “People’s Republics.” In these regions, religious freedom appears to be at the whim of armed militias untethered to any legal authority.
Religious freedom in Russian-occupied Crimea is also greatly curtailed. According to the United Nations, there were roughly 2,200 religious organizations, both registered and unregistered, in Crimea before the 2014 occupation. As of September 2017, only 800 remained. In June 2017, after the Russian Supreme Court decision to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses as extremist, all twenty-two local Witnesses organizations in Crimea, representing 8,000 congregants, were officially banned as well.
Although Russian repression of Crimean Tatars is mainly motivated by political rather than religious concerns, it disrupts Crimean Tatar religious activities and institutions. Russian authorities have co-opted the spiritual life of the Muslim Crimean Tatar minority and arrested or driven into exile its community representatives.
Oppression through the judicial process also continues apace. For example, in August 2017, the main church space of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Simferopol, the administrative capital of Crimea, was seized by bailiffs enforcing a February 2017 court decision transferring its ownership to the Crimean Ministry of Property and Land Relations. According to the United Nations, five UOC churches have been officially seized or shut down since 2014. Meanwhile, Russia’s laws on religion and extremism, strengthened in July 2016, have been used to punish believers of various churches, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, for the exercise of their faith.
Although the worst excesses in the Donbas have declined since 2015, Christian minorities remain the subject of raids, harassment, fines, and official slander. In August 2017, Luhansk security forces recorded themselves raiding two Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Halls, at the end of which they claimed to have found leaflets promoting Nazism and collaboration with Ukrainian intelligence. If this incident inspires déjà vu, it is because the Russian police were caught on video in 2016 planting evidence against Jehovah’s Witnesses.
A prime example of how religious activists and scholars can fall afoul of the authorities in the Russian-occupied areas is the case of Ihor Kozlovsky, sixty-three. Kozlovsky was a professor at the university in Donetsk who studied local religious movements. Active in Protestant Christian life in the area, he had earlier worked in the regional administration, dealing with religious affairs.
In January 2016, he was kidnapped by Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) security forces and accused of storing weapons in his apartment. The forces entered his apartment and searched it for several hours while terrifying his adult son, who suffers from Down Syndrome and paralysis and was alone at the time.
In May 2017, Kozlovsky was convicted of weapons possession and sentenced to nearly three years in prison. His wife and son were forced to flee to Ukrainian government-controlled territory. As far as we could tell on our trip, he was the only religious prisoner in the DPR under continuing detention and his only “crime” was civic activity on behalf of religious groups. Just after Christmas, however, he was released.
More than ever, USCIRF believes that the United States should take a stand for the religious minorities that Russia is oppressing in Russia, as well as in Crimea and the Russian-occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk. The commissioners strongly recommend that Russia be designated a Country of Particular Concern for its severe religious freedom violations, and that appropriate sanctions be imposed against the Russian Federation, including under the Magnitsky Act and the new provisions available in the Global Magnitsky Act.
(Clifford D. May and Thomas J. Reese, S.J. are commissioners on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.)
Photo credit: Screenshot Hromadske International
October 05, 2020
Conscientious objection to military service is frequently connected to freedom of religion or belief, as many conscientious objectors are motivated by deeply-held religious beliefs. The right to conscientious objection is recognized under international human rights law; however, several governments do not recognize this right. In states where this right is not recognized, conscientious objectors often face imprisonment for their beliefs.
Click here to view the Conscientious Objection Factsheet
September 16, 2020
Sep 16, 2020
This op-ed originally appeared in Newsweek, on September 16, 2020.
By USCIRF Commissioners Gary Bauer and Nury Turkel
On April 16, Russian security services drove Raim Aivazov to a forest, forced him to his knees and put a gun to his head before firing a shot into the air. Aivazov, a Tatar Muslim activist from Crimea, was then told that the next time would be for real unless he signed a confession incriminating himself and other Crimean Tatars of membership in a terrorist group. Unfortunately, this incident was not an unusual one in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that the U.S. State Department designate the Russian Federation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 2017. Under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, a CPC designation carries the consequence of sanctions against governments that perpetrate or tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Russia not only perpetrates such violations, it has exported them to neighboring Ukraine and influenced crackdowns on religious freedom in many former Soviet states.
Systematic
For more than 20 years, Russia has enshrined the persecution of religious minorities in its legal system. A 1997 law requires all religious groups to register with the state in order to exist, an arduous process requiring detailed information and proof of presence in the territory of Russia for at least 15 years. The law bolsters so-called “traditional” religions at the expense of religious minorities, while enabling authorities to block registration for a host of bureaucratic reasons.
In 2002, Russia adopted a vague extremism law that allows authorities to prosecute virtually any speech it deems “extremist”. A 2012 study by SOVA Information Center found that religious organizations constituted the majority of those accused under this law. On April 20, 2017, Russia banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses across Russia, based on the accusation that the church was an “extremist organization.”
In 2016, the Russian government adopted a package of amendments, commonly known as the Yarovaya Law, which characterizes sharing religious faith or extending invitations to religious services as illegal missionary activity if it occurs outside of officially registered spaces, including in private homes or online.
Ongoing
Russian persecution of religious minorities has continued to accelerate over the last year. In 2019, authorities charged 24 Crimean Tatars with membership in the Islamic group Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT) and terrorism. Although HT was legal in Ukraine, it is prohibited in Russia—which illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Most of those charged were active in, or affiliated with, Crimean Solidarity—a secular human rights group that opposes the Russian occupation. Raim Aivazov, mentioned above, was also one of those caught up in this ongoing persecution.
In June 2020, Russia sentenced Artem Gerasimov, a resident of occupied Crimea, to six years in prison for his peaceful beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness, and 61-year-old Gennady Shpakovsky to six and a half years—the harshest punishment yet given to a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses report that 10 of its members are currently imprisoned in Russia, while 24 are in pretrial detention, and 24 are under house arrest. Authorities also have carried out hundreds of raids on the private homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Egregious
In February 2019, local law enforcement in the city of Surgut detained and tortured a group of 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses. In response, the U.S. State Department imposed visa restrictions on two Russian officials. In April 2019, Russian authorities again detained Evgeny Kim, who had previously served a full prison term for studying the works of moderate Muslim theologian Said Nursi, and stripped him of his citizenship and personal documents. He was then found guilty of not having those documents and remanded to a detention facility for stateless persons, where he remains.
In neighboring Ukraine, Muslim residents of occupied Crimea report persistent harassment from authorities, especially around holidays like Ramadan. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) reports similar circumstances; for example, on June 28, 2019, occupation authorities seized and closed the main Cathedral and headquarters of the UOC in Crimea.
While the evidence is abundant, the consequences have been minimal and Russia has only accelerated its persecution in recent years. As the December deadline to designate countries approaches, it is long past time for the State Department to recognize the extent and severity of Russia’s violations and name it a country of particular concern, and subsequently impose temporary sanctions that incentivize reform, expiring on the release of religious prisoners or the reform of religion and extremism laws.
November 10, 2020
Read the full Issue Update:
The Global Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses
This update describes official discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world, with a particular focus on countries where members have been imprisoned for their beliefs. These include countries that USCIRF recommended in its 2020 Annual Report for designation as countries of particular concern, such as Eritrea, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan; countries USCIRF recommended for the Special Watch List, including Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan; as well as South Korea and Singapore. The report also makes recommendations for U.S. policy.
November 10, 2020
Nov 10, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2020
USCIRF Releases New Report about Global Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report:
“The Global Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses” Issue Update—This update describes official discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world, with a particular focus on countries where members have been imprisoned for their beliefs. These include countries that USCIRF recommended in its 2020 Annual Report for designation as countries of particular concern, such as Eritrea, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan; countries USCIRF recommended for the Special Watch List, including Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan; as well as South Korea and Singapore. The report also makes recommendations for U.S. policy.
USCIRF documents imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses on its Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List, and Chair Gayle Manchin advocates for Jehovah’s Witness prisoner Dennis Christensen, imprisoned in Russia, as part of USCIRF’s 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 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.
February 12, 2021
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 recently put forth legislation which has significant implications for religious freedom.
Religious freedom conditions in Russia have deteriorated rapidly in recent years. In fact, USCIRF has released several reports over the past year detailing why Russia should be designated a country of particular concern for its egregious violations of religious freedom. This week’s discussion explains why USCIRF makes this recommendation, and how recent events there impact religious freedom conditions.
Featuring:
Dwight Bashir, Director of Outreach and Policy, USCIRF
Jason Morton, Senior Policy Analyst, USCIRF
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.