Religious freedom offenders not updated, USCIRF says

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry should cite 16 countries for severe violations of religious freedom, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended April 30 in its 15th annual report.

“The past 10 years have seen a worsening of the already-poor religious freedom environment in Pakistan, a continued dearth of religious freedom in Turkmenistan, backsliding in Vietnam, rising violations in Egypt before and after the Arab Spring and Syria’s descent into a sectarian civil war with all sides perpetrating egregious religious freedom violations. Yet no new countries have been added to the State Department’s CPC (Countries of Particular Concern) list,” the report states.

USCIRF recommended that the CPC list be expanded to include these countries along with Iraq, Nigeria and Tajikistan. USCIRF’s 2013 report made similar recommendations, with the noteworthy addition in 2014 of Syria.

“Syria … represents one of the worst situations in the world for religious freedom,” USCIRF chair Robert P. George said.