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March 17, 2015 | USCIRF

Statement of Commissioner Eric P. Schwartz upon completing a visit to Sri Lanka, March 15-17, 2015

I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to visit Sri Lanka with USCIRF Senior Policy Analyst Sahar Chaudhry to assess the climate for religious freedom, other human rights, and tolerance since the country’s 2015 election.

During our three day visit, we had the opportunity to meet with Minister of Foreign Affaris, Mangala Samaraweera, Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa, Minister of Buddha Sasana Karu Jayasuriya, and Minister of Muslim Religious Affairs Abdel Halim Mohamed Hasheem, as well as representatives from Sri Lanka’s diverse religious communities, among others.

We are encouraged by statements made by officials with whom we met.  In particular, we welcome comments in support of national reconciliation among all Sri Lanka’s religious and ethnic communities.  After a devastating war and reports that religious minority communities were increasingly subjected to attacks in recent years, the new government's engagement with religious minorities is an important step forward in the effort to promote national unity and increased space for all religious groups.

We welcome other measures by the government, in the areas of freedom of expression and association in particular, which tend to create a climate conducive to religious freedom.

We are very pleased to hear that reports of abuses perpetrated against minority religious communities have diminished over the last few months.  We encourage the government to hold perpetrators of such crimes accountable.  We believe accountability will encourage a critical sense of security and well-being among affected communities.

While welcoming recent government measures, representatives of civil society with whom we met expressed continued concerns about the ability of religious communities to practice their chosen faiths without restriction.  This includes the ability to build houses of worship and to be free of any acts of intimidation or harassment. 

We hope and trust Sri Lankan officials will address these issues in the weeks and months to come. Nonetheless, we leave Sri Lanka with a sense of great encouragement, and we look forward to further progress on these critically important issues.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

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March 16, 2015 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 15 marked the 4th anniversary of the protests in Damascus, Aleppo and Daraa which set the stage for the Syrian conflict.  On this sad anniversary, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) remembers the millions of Syrians who have suffered.  USCIRF also notes that Syria’s history of religious diversity may be lost and all of Syria’s religious communities are largely deprived of religious freedom.

“After four years of conflict, religious diversity and freedom in Syria are victims of the actions of the al-Assad regime, as well as of internationally-recognized opposition fighters and U.S.-designated terrorist groups, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett.  “By the systematic targeting and massacre of primarily Sunni Muslims, the al-Assad regime created the environment in which ISIL could rise and spread, threatening the entire region and all religious communities that reject its violent religious ideology, with the smallest religious minority communities facing an existential threat.  The world must face the stark reality that many may never be able to return to their homelands.  Not only must we continue to bear witness to their plight, we also must protect them and grant them safe haven.”

More than half of Syria’s pre-conflict population now is internally displaced or are refugees in neighboring countries.  Of the more than 3.8 million registered refugees who sought safety, mostly in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Iraq, an estimated three-quarters are women and children under the age of 17 -- including tens of thousands of babies who are stateless.  An estimated 9.3 million people in Syria need food, water, and shelter, including more than 6.5 million who are internally-displaced.  In addition, four years of conflict and ISIL’s widespread and well documented attacks, including beheadings and mass murder, have irrevocably damaged the country’s religious diversity.

USCIRF calls on the U.S. government to work with our international partners to prioritize the protection of and assistance to all non-combatant Syrians, especially religious and ethnic minorities, and help ensure that issues related to religious freedom and human rights are included in any political negotiations that seek to end this devastating crisis.  USCIRF also urges the U.S. government to increase the U.S. refugee ceiling from 70,000 to at least 125,000; increase the number of Syrians accepted for resettlement; and ensure that Syrians who pose no threat to the United States and are fleeing the al-Assad regime or terrorist groups are not unfairly excluded from the U.S. resettlement program under overbroad terrorism bars.

In its 2014 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended for the first time that Syria be designated a CPC.  The Syria chapter in the Report includes other recommendations, as does the op-ed Year of the Refugee.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

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February 27, 2015 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expresses deep concern about reports this week in both Arabic and English language media that a General Court in Saudi Arabia sentenced to death a young Saudi man for apostasy.  According to multiple reports, the unidentified man allegedly posted a video of himself on a social networking site tearing pages from a Quran while making disparaging remarks.  The court used this video as evidence to convict him and justify the death sentence. 

“This conviction and death sentence fly in the face of international human rights protections, including the right to freedom of religion or belief, which includes the right to change religion or hold no beliefs.  The Commission strongly opposes any negative consequences for exercising these rights, while not condoning the desecration of religious texts,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett.  “The government of Saudi Arabia should release this man and others who have been imprisoned and often are harshly treated for exerting their universally-protected rights to free expression and belief.”

“Along with this man, other prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia include blogger Raif Badawi and his lawyer, human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khair, as well as Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, a founding member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), with whom USCIRF met while visiting the Kingdom in 2013,” said Lantos Swett.

The Saudi government persists in restricting most forms of public religious expression that it deems inconsistent with its particular interpretation of Sunni Islam.  Despite some improvements in recent years on religious freedom, restrictions and punishments continue against dissidents and non-conforming Muslims, including for apostasy, blasphemy, and sorcery.  The United States has designated Saudi Arabia for more than ten years as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for its systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.  Although Saudi Arabia has been designated a CPC, an indefinite waiver on taking any action in consequence of the CPC designation has been in place since 2006. 

For more information, please see USCIRF’s Saudi Arabia chapter in the 2014 Annual Report.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.