China has been listed as a 'country of particular concern' since 1998, while India joins the list for first time since 2004
Indian Dalit Christians hold a 2012 protest in New Delhi for equal rights. India has joined a list of worst offenders for religious persecution in a report by a US government agency. (Photo: AFP)
China, Myanmar, North Korea, India, and Pakistan were listed among the worst offenders against religious freedom or belief last year, according to an annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The commission’s report, released on May 1, documented “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of the right to freedom of religion or belief across the world.
It recommended listing 17 nations as “countries of particular concerns (CPC)” — Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, India, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam, and Afghanistan, stating that governments in those countries engage in or tolerate violation of religious freedom or belief.
Cuba and Nicaragua have been added to the CPC list for the first time.
China has been listed in the CPC since the commission started publishing the report in 1998 due to various forms of religious persecution such as torture, forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and unjust convictions.
India has been added to the list for the first time since 2004.
"The national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national-level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims. Most notably, it enacted the Citizenship [Amendment] Act, which provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan already residing in India," the report said.
The commission also recommended designating another 11 nations in the "special watch list" (SWL) based on their governments’ perpetration or toleration of severe religious freedom violations. These countries are Algeria, Central African Republic, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
Sri Lanka has been added to the SWL due to its deteriorating religious freedom conditions in 2022.
The commission strongly urges the US government to make efforts to ensure freedom of religion or belief as mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act 1998, said its chair Nury Turkel.
“We strongly urge the Biden administration to implement USCIRF’s recommendations — in particular, to designate the countries recommended as CPCs, and for the Special Watch List, or SWL, and to review US policy toward the CPC-designated countries for which waivers were issued on taking any action,” Turkel said.
We also stress the importance of Congress acting to prohibit any person from receiving compensation for lobbying on behalf of foreign adversaries, including those engaging in particularly severe violations of the right to freedom of religion of belief,” he added.
The commission also called on President Joe Biden’s administration to act against seven non-state actors for redesignation as “entities of particular concern” (EPCs) for religious freedom violations.
The EPCs are al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP or ISIS-West Africa), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
“Throughout the past year, the US government continued to condemn abuses of religious freedom and hold perpetrators accountable through targeted sanctions and other tools. Moving forward, the United States should take additional steps to support freedom of religion or belief around the world,” the commission Vice Chair Abraham Cooper said.
In addition to key findings and US policy recommendations for 28 countries in CPC and SWL, the commission’s report also highlighted important global developments and trends related to religious freedom in 2022.
These include transnational repression and influence by religious freedom violators, religious freedom concerns in Europe, laws restricting religious freedom, emerging religious freedom concerns in other countries, positive developments in combating anti-semitism, and religious freedom concerns for indigenous peoples in Latin America.
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