USCIRF Releases New Report on Religious Freedom amid Iraq’s Political Crisis

Washington, D.C. – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report:

Religious Freedom amid Iraq’s Political Crisis – This report analyzes religious freedom conditions in Iraq in relation to the federal government’s political crises in 2021 and 2022. It examines sectarianism in Iraqi politics, including intra-Shi’a Muslim tensions and anti-Sunni Muslim sentiment, each of which have contributed to a protracted government deadlock. The report also explains how this government paralysis has negatively impacted ethnic and religious minorities throughout Iraqincluding Yazidis, Christians, Sabaean Mandeans, Shabaks, and Kaka’is.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department include Iraq on its Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act. In November 2022, an episode of USCIRF’s Spotlight podcast highlighted the Yazidi community’s struggle to recover from the ongoing effects of the genocide that the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched in 2014. The episode pointed to ways in which both the Iraqi federal government and Kurdistan Regional Government can help facilitate Yazidis’ safe return to their homeland in the Sinjar area, including fully implementing the Sinjar Agreement and the Yazidi Survivors Law.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected]. 

USCIRF Releases Report on State-Controlled Religion and Religious Freedom Violations in China

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report:

State-Controlled Religion and Religious Freedom Violations in China – This report provides an overview of China’s state-controlled religious organizations and their role and function within the country’s institutional control of religion, demonstrating their complicity in the government’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Central to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) institutional control of religion are the seven state-controlled national religious organizations and their local subsidiaries, often known as “patriotic religious associations,” which are responsible for managing religious affairs of the five officially recognized religions—Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam. These religious organizations are legally required to be politically loyal to the CCP and to work with the CCP and its government in promulgating, implementing, and enforcing state laws, regulations, and policies. That complicity extends to the CCP’s deeply coercive sinicization of religion policies that have led to severe religious freedom violations against the majority-Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic groups, Protestant house church Christians, and Tibetan Buddhists.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. government redesignate
China as a “Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC. In December 2022, USCIRF held a hearing on the Chinese government’s domestic and transnational repression of religion, as well as its malign influence abroad through lobbying in the United States.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].

USCIRF Releases New Report on Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following report:

Saudi Arabia Country Update – This report assesses religious freedom conditions in Saudi Arabia in 2022. The ongoing power shifts from the Saudi religious establishment to the ruling family has created some opportunities for reforms to guardianship laws, textbooks, and social policies impacting religious freedom. However, the trend of retrying prisoners and sentencing others to decades in prison for peaceful religious dissent is an alarming development that undermines the Saudi narrative of reform. This report discusses these sentences, provides information on conditions for religious minorities, and recommends U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia as it relates to promoting freedom of religion or belief.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department redesignate Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its ongoing violations of religious freedom, and lift the national security waiver releasing the administration from taking otherwise
legislatively mandated action as a result of the designation.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].