USCIRF Spotlight Podcast

The Kazakhstani government is implementing promising reforms that could make Kazakhstan Central Asia’s leading example of religious freedom. USCIRF has recommended the U.S. State Department place Kazakhstan on its Special Watch List, and previously USCIRF’s Tier 2 List, since 2013 in response to deteriorating religious freedom conditions stemming from the passage of its religion law in 2011. Howev...

Cuba’s government has long been responsible for violating its citizens right to freedom of religion or belief. In its 2021 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department again place Cuba on its Special Watch List for engaging in severe religious freedom violations and has been doing so for many years. USCIRF Supervisory Policy Analyst Kirsten Lavery joins us today to discuss the histo...

Egypt is home to over 100 million people—of which the majority identify as Sunni Muslim with a significant Coptic Christian minority. A variety of smaller religious minorities also call Egypt home such as Baha’is, Jehovah’s Witnesses, non-theists, and Muslim minorities, which include Shi’a Muslims and the Qur’anist community. These smaller religious communities have long faced marginalization and...

In 2015, USCIRF for the first time recommended the Central African Republic (CAR) be designated by the State Department a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom following years of sectarian violence that erupted after a 2013 coup. As the violence against religious minority communities subsided in subsequent years, in 2020, USCIRF recomm...

On July 2, 1993 a mob set fire to the Madimak Hotel in Sivas, Turkey—where a group of prominent Alevi writers, poets, and thinkers had gathered. Reports show 37 people died in what became known as the Sivas (or Madimak) Massacre. For Alevis, the incident reflected the prejudice and hate the community faced in their native homeland of Turkey, where today Alevis make up an estimated 10 to 20 percent...

Ethiopia has been going through a democratic transition amidst a civil war that broke out in Tigray at the end of 2020. In November of last year, a massacre took place in Tigray that was slow to be reported in major news outlets globally. USCIRF has been closely monitoring religious freedom violations in that region and in Ethiopia more broadly. The U.S. Department of State recently announced that...

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) mandates USCIRF to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. In addition to making recommendations, USCIRF’s mandate was recently amended to include tracking the U.S. government’s implementation of our recommendations as well as to review the effectiveness of such implemented recommendations in advanci...

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The Special Rapporteur identifies existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief and presents recommendations to the Council on ways to overcome these obstacles. In recent years, the Special Rapporteur has produced...

For the first time in years, Bahrain was not included in the list of countries that USCIRF recommends for the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL). The government of Bahrain has made incremental improvements to religious freedom conditions within the country over the past several years—working to enhance the rights of religious communities including Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and...

  Blasphemy laws criminalize expression that insults or offends religious doctrines. Such laws are often used to restrict freedom of religion or belief. As of 2020, 84 countries still had blasphemy laws. The severity of a blasphemy law on the books, however, is only the beginning of the story. The enforcement of such laws—either government enforcement or mob violence—undermines human rights, inclu...

  It’s been 50 years since the Turkish government closed the Greek Orthodox Theological School of Halki, also known as the Halki Seminary. The school continues to be unable to educate or train clergy in a country with a historical but dwindling Greek Orthodox community. The Halki Seminary’s continued closure poses an obstacle to the survival of that community within Turkey. The international commu...

  The central Sahel region of West Africa is currently home to an extremely complex and fluid landscape of Islamist insurgent actors that stem from both locally grown and foreign movements. Several violent insurgent actors have been gaining power in the Sahel region, and committing religious freedom violations in the areas they control. Security challenges in the Central Sahel, compounded by clima...

Since 1979 Iran’s government has shown a consistent disregard for the rights of religious minority communities who  run afoul of the government’s narrow interpretation of Shi’a Islam. Even the majority Shi’a Muslim population must adhere to the government’s religious doctrine of Leadership of the Jurist (vilayt e-faqih). Those with alternative or differing opinions have suffered harassment, survei...

The program to resettle refugees to the United States has existed since 1980, with strong bipartisan support. Earlier this month, President Biden signed an emergency declaration to speed up refugee admissions into the United States, but did not raise the ceiling from the current 15,000 person low. After receiving pushback from advocacy groups, the administration later stated that President Biden i...

USCIRF released its 2021 Annual Report documenting developments over the past year, and providing policy recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad. In its report, USCIRF also monitored public health measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and their impact on religious freedom. USCIRF’s independence and bipartisanship enables...

Bilateral relations between the United States and Vietnam has grown increasingly cooperative since 1995. The two countries have built strong economic, political, and security partnerships. Despite this relationship, the US government continues to pay particular attention to the overall human rights situation in there, including freedom of religion or belief. USCIRF traveled to Vietnam in 2019 to o...

Pancasila is a founding concept of  Indonesia , comprising of five principles: monotheism, civilized humanity, national unity, deliberative democracy, and social justice. This concept came about at the onset of Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands in 1945 to unify the population and emphasize moderation and tolerance. As Indonesia has witnessed the rise of Islamist extremist activities an...

In a public statement on March 27, 2021, the Chinese government imposed a travel ban on USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin and Vice Chair Tony Perkins and prohibited any Chinese citizens or institutions from doing business with them. The statement issued by China asserts that USCIRF should stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and refrain from “going further down the wrong path” otherwise “they wil...

In some countries around the world, religion-based laws are used by governments to impose capital punishment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons. All of the 10 countries where consensual same-sex relationships are punishable by death (Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen) justify denial...

Egypt has historically faced many challenges to religious freedom. There has been recurring violence and discrimination against Coptic Christians, who represent 10-15% of the population, as well as other communities who face religious freedom challenges. Furthermore, Egypt is one of the world’s leading enforcers of blasphemy laws. The United States joined 30 other countries at the UN Human Rights...

  There have been notable improvements to religious freedom conditions in Uzbekistan in recent years. The government’s ongoing effort to revise the restrictive 1998 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations demonstrates progress. Nevertheless, significant challenges to religious freedom in the country still remain. Even in revised draft legislation, religious communities are still r...

Santería is a syncretic religion that incorporates elements of Catholicism with the religion of the Yoruba people, who were brought as slaves to Cuba from the Congo basin and West Africa in the 16th century. While many Cubans can freely observe Santería practices, some practitioners and religious leaders have experienced ongoing violations of their right to freedom of religion or belief. These vio...

On February 1, 2021, the Burmese military declared the results of the November 2020 democratic elections to be invalid, enacted a one-year state of emergency, and detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Myint Swe along with other state officials. This coup d’état is especially concerning for religious and ethnic communities already facing violence in Burma. The military has been a...

In recent years, northern Iraq has become a battleground for Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In June 2020, Turkey escalated their attacks in the region, announcing military operations Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger that included airstrikes near Sinjar. These attacks have been particularly damaging to the traumatized Yazidi community, who are victims of genocide by the Islami...

Russia is currently experiencing ongoing, widespread anti-corruption protests. These protests demonstrate the largest challenge to government control in almost a decade. Meanwhile, the State Duma recently put forth legislation which has significant implications for religious freedom. Religious freedom conditions in Russia have deteriorated rapidly in recent years. In fact, USCIRF has released seve...