The US State Department has released its annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Report for 2020, which is a survey of the state of religious freedom across the world. US has designated Pakistan and China among eight other countries that are of particular concern for violation of religious freedom.
The International Religious Report has two major categories, namely: Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) and Special Watch List (SWL). CPC, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), is designated to those “countries that commit systematic, on-going, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” USCIRF also recommends countries to be added to the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL). The SWL is for countries whose governments engage or tolerate in severe religious freedom violations, but do not rise to the CPC standard of “systematic, ongoing, and egregious.”
This process of accessing and creating a report is in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 which was passed to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States. The Act aims to promote greater religious freedom in countries which engage in or tolerate violations of religious freedom, and to advocate on the behalf of individuals persecuted for their religious beliefs and activities in foreign countries.
Countries recommended to US State Government to designate under CPC category are :-
- Burma
- Etritrea
- Iran
- North Korea
- Russia
- Syria
- Turkmenistan
- China
- India
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Tajikistan
- Vietnam
Countries under Special Watch List are :- Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Laos, Nicaragua, Turkey, Algeria, Bahrain, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
The US has designated al-Shabaab, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Taliban as ‘Entities of Particular Concern’.
USCIRF monitors religious freedom through the lens of International Human Rights standards, such as those found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. They designate the countries if they don’t meet the required international standards.
USCIRF designated India in CPC category in 2019. The Indian government rejected the observations, terming them as “biased and tendentious”. It had downgraded India’s religious freedom to the lowest grade in the ‘Country of Particular Concern (CPC) category. Notably, the State Department did not accept the USCIRF recommendation that India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam be also designated as CPCs. Sudan and Uzbekistan have been removed from the Special Watch List based on significant, concrete progress undertaken by their respective governments over the past year. Nigeria is the first secular democracy that has been named a CPC.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) praised the State Department’s for putting the list together. Mike Pompeo, the US State Secretary talked about Religious freedom and how it is an essential right for a free society that flourishes. He also added that the U.S will continue to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution around the world, and to help ensure that each person, everywhere, at all times, has the right to live according to the dictates of conscience.
