FIVE new countries should be added to the United States government’s list of countries with severe and worsening restrictions on religious freedoms, a commission on religious freedom has said.
The recommended countries, which include Nigeria, India, and Vietnam, would join 12 others designated in November as being of particular concern for repression of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act. The list is intended to focus the attention of US policymakers on the worst violators of religious freedom, and to consider action, including economic sanctions.
In its annual report for 2023, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that it was “disheartened” by the worsening repression of religious groups in the 17 countries. While many have been of concern for worsening repression for several years, for the first time, Cuba and Nicaragua have been listed as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).
The report said that Nigeria had experienced “rampant violence and atrocities”, including attacks by Islamic State in West Africa against Christian communities, such as the attack on a Roman Catholic church on Pentecost last year which killed 40 people (News, 10 June 2022).
Churches, mosques, religious leaders, and worshippers have been targeted by armed groups, and blasphemy laws have led to prosecutions and also mob violence against those accused of blasphemy. A Christian student, Deborah Yakuba, was stoned to death and her body burned after accusations that she had made comments in a WhatsApp thread that were insulting to Islam (News, 20 May 2022). There were 1041 “defenceless Christians” killed in Nigeria in the first 100 days of 2023, the report states. And, under President Muhammadu Buhari, who came into power in 2015, about 18,000 Christian churches and 2200 Christian schools have been destroyed.
In Vietnam, there is government control and persecution of religious groups, particularly those who are unregistered. Conditions for religious prisoners of conscience were dire last year, the report says. Vietnam’s constitution says that citizens can follow any religion or none, but it also allows authorities to restrict human rights, including religious freedom for reasons of national security, morality, and well-being.
In India, an increasing number of states have legislated to criminalise religious conversions — often used to prevent interfaith marriages, and disproportionately targeting Christians and Muslims.
Hindu nationalist groups are acting with “impunity” and targeting religious minorities, the report says. “Social media and news channels served as a platform for Hindu nationalist groups to stoke tensions and encourage violence toward minority groups.”
Afghanistan and Syria are the last of the five new countries which have been recommended for adding to the list of CPCs. In November 2022, the USCIRF also recommended that Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan should be designated as CPCs for “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations” of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
Russia’s oppression of Ukrainian religious communities should be added to war-crime charges filed against Russian leaders, the USCIRF commission said at the report’s publication. Ukraine was also criticised by the Commission, however, owing to “serious concerns” that it might ban the Orthodox Church linked to Moscow, despite its protestations of autonomy.
Speaking at the report’s publication this month, Nury Turkel, who chairs the USCIRF, singled out the treatment of women and girls in Iran. He said: “USCIRF is disheartened by the deteriorating conditions for freedom of religion or belief in some countries — especially in Iran, where authorities harassed, arrested, tortured, and sexually assaulted people peacefully protesting against mandatory hijab laws, alongside their brutal continuing repression of religious minority communities.”
Mahsa Amini, who died in custody in Iran (News, 14 October 2022), is the cover image on the report.
The report also recommends that the State Department place seven other countries on a Special Watch List: one level down in level of concern from the CPC list. Seven “non-state actors” (an individual or organisation that has significant political influence but is not allied to any particular country or state) were also recommended to be added to a list of “entities of particular concern”, including Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, and Islamic State in both the Greater Sahara and West Africa, who join the Taliban and the Wagner group.
The State Department does not have to accept the recommended redesignation; last year, it ignored USCIRF’s report which recommended adding four of the same countries — Afghanistan, India, Syria, and Vietnam — to the list.