USCIRF Releases New Report on Violence Impacting Religious Freedom in Nigeria

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

Violence and Religious Freedom in Nigeria – This policy update identifies the ways in which widespread violence by nonstate actors in Nigeria threaten freedom of religion or belief. Examples detailed in the report include militant Islamist group violence, some forms of identity-based violence, mob violence, and violence impacting worship. It also explores the role that poor governance plays in driving much of this violence, as well as the impact on religious freedom of several aggravating factors exacerbating insecurity, including localized religious discrimination, the politicization of religion, and wider demographic and economic trends. The report concludes by highlighting the U.S. government’s responsibility to respond to religious freedom violations and rising atrocity risk in Nigeria, as mandated by U.S. law, and laying out policy response options.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations. In June 2022, a USCIRF delegation visited Nigeria and published a USCIRF Spotlight Podcast episode detailing the visit’s findings and takeaways.

###

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 Religious Freedom in Uzbekistan 

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

Uzbekistan Country Update – This report documents ongoing violations of freedom of religion or belief in Uzbekistan, which the U.S. Department of State removed from its Special Watch List in late 2020 after determining that the country no longer engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.” Uzbekistan has made important progress in recent years—such as ending raids on religious minority communities, granting official registration to a handful of religious groups, and releasing some prisoners incarcerated for their religious activities—but it has yet to fundamentally change its position regarding the state’s role in controlling religious affairs. This report highlights several practices that continue to pose obstacles to the protection and promotion of religious freedom, including the imprisonment of Muslims for their religious activities or affiliations, prosecution for possession or distribution of religious literature and related materials, and other bureaucratic and legislative barriers to the exercise of this right.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. Department of State place Uzbekistan back on its Special Watch List for engaging in severe violations of religious freedom. USCIRF commissioners and staff visited the country in April 2022 and discussed findings from that trip in a June episode of USCIRF Spotlight Podcast. In October 2021, USCIRF released a report on “Uzbekistan's Religious and Political Prisoners.”

###

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 Welcomes Xinjiang Report Released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the long-awaited release by the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of its assessment of the human rights situation in the Xinjiang region of China.

“We welcome that the OHCHR finally released the much-delayed report, confirming that the Chinese Communist Party has perpetrated serious human rights violations in Xinjiang that may constitute international crimes, including crimes against humanity,” said USCIRF Chair Nury Turkel. “The report is an important recognition by a UN body of the Chinese Communist Party’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, but it is only a first step. USCIRF urges all human-rights supporting UN member states, including the United States, to support further investigations of China for genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, based on credible evidence, by the incoming High Commissioner for Human Rights and other relevant UN entities. The United Nations and the international community, both collectively and individually, must do their parts to hold perpetrators of these egregious atrocity crimes accountable.”

Since 2017, the Chinese government has arbitrarily detained millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslims in concentration camps in Xinjiang, often targeting individuals engaged in Islamic religious practices. Detainees reported torture, rape, forced abortion and sterilization, political indoctrination, forced labor, and other abuses. Authorities demolished or desecrated thousands of mosques and religious sites important to Uyghurs’ unique religious, ethnic, and cultural identity. In addition, as many as 880,000 Muslim children have been separated from detained parents and placed in state-run orphanages and boarding schools. The U.S. government, parliaments of Canada and several European countries, and the European Parliament have determined the atrocities committed in Xinjiang as genocide and crimes against humanity.

“USCIRF strongly condemns the Chinese government’s repeated denial of abuses in Xinjiang in the face of overwhelming evidence of genocide and mounting international outcry over its relentless assault on Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of other Muslim groups,” said USCIRF Commissioner David Curry. “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of the UN Human Rights Council, China’s intimidation of victims and recalcitrant behaviors are unacceptable. It must come to terms with its international responsibility and immediately cease persecution of members of these vulnerable ethno-religious groups.”

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department redesignate China as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Furthermore, USCIRF called on the U.S. government to work with like-minded countries in international fora, including the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, to collectively hold the Chinese government accountable for severe religious freedom violations, including by creating a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate and identify perpetrators of genocide and other atrocity crimes in Xinjiang and document other severe human rights abuses throughout China.

###

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].