Release religious prisoners of conscience: Religious Freedom Commission publishes 2024 report

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom this week marked the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), which mandates the preparation and publication of its annual report. The USCIRF is specifically charged with the mission of “Promoting international freedom of religion or belief by independently assessing and fearlessly combating threats to this fundamental right.” The Commission makes policy suggestions to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

2024 USCIRF Report Cover

The annual report highlights the countries and entities that USCIRF believes deserve a series of designations to highlight concerns about religious persecution. The report is intended to draw the attention of US policymakers to the worst violators of religious freedom worldwide. This year, the independent, bipartisan commission’s report noted that “some egregious situations have remained constant or even worsened over this period, and several countries have regressed with periods of notable progress.”

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 by vice police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s hijab rules. Her death sparked weeks of violent protests across Iran. This year’s report is a collage of images from previous reports documenting persecution and progress over the past quarter century.

In its first annual report, released in May 2000, USCIRF focused primarily on China, Russia and Sudan. The committee writes that not much has changed. The governments of China and Russia, the 2024 report said, remain prominent violators of their citizens’ religious freedoms, engaging in widespread cross-border repression and other harmful activities abroad, including in the United States. The severity of the oppression of Uighur and other Turkic Muslims by Chinese authorities has escalated to the point where the US government officially recognized it in 2021 as genocide and crimes against humanity.

The report highlighted Hong Kong and Tibet as specific concerns related to China, but that the country’s influence and potential 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 country has “100 overseas police stations in at least 53 countries” and that “the Chinese government and state-linked entities (which) have hired former U.S. officials and former members of Congress to lobby on their behalf, causing religious freedom and human rights in China.”

USCIRF Report 2024

The report highlighted that recent cases, recognized by the United States as genocide and crimes against humanity, have targeted minority religious groups, long the focus of USCIRF advocacy, such as Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims in Iraq , and Rohingya Muslims in Burma. Unfortunately, justice for survivors and accountability for perpetrators remains elusive in all of these cases.

The report noted that Sudan was an exception and witnessed real improvements in religious freedom during the civilian-led transition period that began in 2019. However, the political situation remains challenging given the military coup in 2021 and the subsequent civil conflict in 2023. The report took note of these events. have undermined Sudan’s progress, leading to a humanitarian crisis affecting all Sudanese.

There were more points of interest. The report also noted that while improvements have been made in some areas over the years, lingering concerns remain, alongside observed declines in countries such as Egypt, India, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Kyrgyzstan marks its inaugural appearance with the 2024 report, with the USCIRF proposing to place the country on the special watchlist alongside Central Asian counterparts Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

In addition, the report recommended a special watch list (SWL) consisting of Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey. According to the report, these governments tolerate “serious” violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF reiterated its recommendation that Tajikistan and Turkmenistan retain their Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) designations, alongside countries such as China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. In addition, the report advocates 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 serious violations of religious freedom, often involving violence. The list includes the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Syrian Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, the Islamic State of Sahel, the Islamic State in Western Province Africa, and in the Mahgreb, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).

On Thursday, India criticized the USCIRF report for saying: “The government, led by (President Narendra Modi’s statement) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reinforced discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric and failed to address communal violence to take.” The report notes that the violence disproportionately affects Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews and Adivasis, or indigenous people. “India has done better in the past and needs to change course because of the downward spiral in a country of that importance and the number of people involved. It’s quite frightening,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

At a press conference, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal denounced the report as “propaganda against India.”

The report noted that the U.S. Congress should “highlight concerns about religious freedom 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 the Free Yorubas of Cuba and is a member of the Yoruba-Cuban religious minority such as Regla de Ocha or Ifá (both often called Santeria).

“It is critical that the President, Secretary of State, and Congress implement the recommendations in this year’s report,” USCIRF Chairman Abraham Cooper said at the release of the 2024 report. “While there have been 25 years elapsed since the founding of USCIRF, it is now more important than ever to ensure that promoting freedom of religion or belief remains a core tenet of U.S. foreign policy.”