WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom marked the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) mandating the construction and release of its annual report this week. The USCIRF is charged specifically with the mission “To advance international freedom of religion or belief, by independently assessing and unflinchingly confronting threats to this fundamental right.” The Commission provides policy suggestions to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.
2024 USCIRF Report cover
The Annual Report highlights the countries and entities that, in USCIRF’s view, merit a series of designations to underscore concerns over religious persecution. The report is intended to focus U.S. policymakers’ attention on the worst violators of religious freedom globally. This year the independent bipartisan commission’s report noted that “some egregious situations have remained constant or even worsened during this period, and several countries with periods of notable progress have regressed.”
Last year, the cover of the report honored Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman who fell into a coma and died after being arrested in Tehran by the morality police for allegedly violating the country’s hijab rules. Her death sparked weeks of violent protests across Iran. This year, the report is a collage of images from previous reports documenting persecution and progress over the last quarter century.
In its inaugural annual report released in May 2000, USCIRF primarily scrutinized China, Russia, and Sudan. The commission wrote that not much has changed. The governments of China and Russia, the 2024 report noted, persist as prominent violators of their citizens’ religious freedoms, engaging extensively in cross-border repression and other detrimental activities abroad, including within the United States. The severity of Chinese authorities’ oppression of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims has escalated to the point where the U.S. government officially recognized it as genocide and crimes against Humanity in 2021.
The report highlighted Hong Kong and Tibet as specific concerns related to China but that the nation’s influence and possible suppression of religious freedoms had a wider reach. USCIRF Commissioner Nury A. Turkel described China as the “world’s most sophisticated and far-reaching perpetrator of transnational repression.” He noted that the nation has “100 overseas police stations in at least 53 countries,” and that “the Chinese government and its state affiliates entities [who] have hired former U.S. officials and former members of Congress to lobby on their behalf, undermining religious freedom and relating human rights in China.”
2024 USCIRF Report
The report highlighted that recent instances acknowledged by the United States as genocide and crimes against humanity have targeted religious minority groups, long the focus of USCIRF’s advocacy—such as Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq, and Rohingya Muslims in Burma. Unfortunately, justice for survivors and accountability for perpetrators in all these cases remains elusive.
The report noted that Sudan was an exception witnessing genuine improvements in religious freedom during the civilian-led transitional period starting in 2019. However, the political situation remains challenging given the military coup in 2021 and the ensuing civil conflict in 2023. It noted these events have undermined Sudan’s progress, resulting in a humanitarian crisis affecting all Sudanese.
There were more areas of concern. The report also noted that while improvements in some areas over the years, ongoing concerns persist, alongside observed regression in countries like Egypt, India, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Kyrgyzstan marks its inaugural appearance with the 2024 report, with the USCIRF proposing that the nation be placed on the special watch list alongside Central Asian counterparts Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Additionally, the report recommended a Special Watch List (SWL) comprising Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Turkey. The report said these governments tolerate “severe” religious freedom violations.
USCIRF reiterated its recommendation for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to retain their Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) designations, alongside countries like China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the report advocates for CPC designations for Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam.
The report also identified Entities of Particular Concern (EPCs), non-state groups that engage in particularly severe religious freedom violations that often include violence. The list includes al-Shabaab terrorist organization in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Syrian Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, the Islamic State Sahel Province, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, and in the Mahgreb, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
On Thursday, India criticized the USCIRF report for the comment “The government, led by [President Narendra Modi’s ruling] Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reinforced discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric and failed to address communal violence.” The report noted the violence disproportionately impacts Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis, or indigenous peoples. “India has done better in the past and has to change course because the cycle of downward spiral in a country of that importance and the number of people who are involved. It is quite frightening,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Speaking at a press briefing, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, denounced the report as “propaganda against India.”
The report noted that the US Congress should “Highlight religious freedom concerns in Cuba through hearings and letters and by advocating for the release of religious prisoners of conscience such as Lisdiani Rodríguez Isaac, Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac, Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Loreto Hernández García, and Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo.” The group is reportedly part of Free Yorubas of Cuba and members of the Yoruba-Cuban religious minority like Regla de Ocha or Ifá (both often referred to as Santeria).
“It is vital that the President, Secretary of State, and Congress implement the recommendations in this year’s report,” USCIRF Chair Abraham Cooper said at the release of the 2024 report. “While 25 years have passed since USCIRF was created, it is more important now than ever to ensure that promoting freedom of religion or belief remains a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy.”
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