Read the FoRB Victims List section of USCIRF's 2024 Annual Report here

This is the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) Frank R. Wolf Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List, or FoRB Victims List. The FoRB Victims List is a database that catalogues select victims targeted due to their freedom of religion or belief.

LEGISLATION

USCIRF is mandated to maintain the FoRB Victims List. This mandate is provided for in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), as amended by the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016. Under this law, USCIRF is required to:

"make publicly available to the extent practicable, ... lists of persons [USCIRF] determines are imprisoned or detained, have disappeared, been placed under house arrest, been tortured, or subjected to forced renunciations of faith for their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy by the government of a foreign country that [USCIRF] recommends for designation as a country of particular concern for religious freedom... or by a nonstate actor that [USCIRF] recommends for designation as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom..." 

Under IRFA, USCIRF uses international standards in its work, including in the FoRB Victims List. USCIRF uses the terms religious freedom, freedom of religion, and freedom of religion or belief interchangeably to refer to the broad right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief protected under international human rights law. The primary international provisions guaranteeing this right are Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

METHODOLOGY

SCOPE

The scope of the FoRB Victims List is limited as outlined below.

Victims

All victims in the FoRB Victims List have been targeted for one of the violations defined below. Victims included in this list may have been targeted due to their faith-based activity or advocacy or by laws that conflict with religious freedom, such as blasphemy or apostasy laws.

Violators

The FoRB Victims List only collects information on states and entities that USCIRF has recommended for designation as "countries of particular concern" (CPCs) and "entities of particular concern (EPCs) for engaging or tolerating particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF is focusing on developing the FoRB Victims List for CPC and SWL countries. In 2024, USCIRF recommended the following countries for CPC designation: (1) Afghanistan, (2) Azerbaijan, (3) Burma, (4) China, (5) Cuba, (6) Eritrea, (7) India, (8) Iran, (9) Nicaragua, (10) Nigeria, (11) North Korea, (12) Pakistan, (13) Russia, (14) Saudi Arabia, (15) Tajikistan, (16) Turkmenistan, and (17) Vietnam. Also in 2024, USCIRF recommended the following countries for SWL inclusion: (1) Algeria, (2) Egypt, (3) Indonesia, (4) Iraq, (5) Kazakhstan, (6) Kyrgyzstan, (7) Malaysia, (8) Sri Lanka, (9) Syria, (10) Turkey, and (11) Uzbekistan. The EPC recommendations are: (1) al-Shabaab, (2) Boko Haram, (3) Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), (4) the Houthis, (5) Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), (6) Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (also referred to as ISIS-West Africa), and (7) Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM). For more information on USCIRF's CPC, SWL, and EPC recommendations, please click here.

Violations

The FoRB Victims List is further limited to only recording victims of: (1) imprisonment, (2) detainment, (3) disappearance, (4) house arrest, (5) torture, or (6) subjection to forced renunciations of faith for their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy. These violations are further defined below.

When applicable, USCIRF has incorporated international law into its definitions of violations. The human rights violations that are recorded in the FoRB Victims List are defined as:

  1. Detainment: refers to victims who have been held in custody by the country or entitiy for a minimum of three days but not formally sentenced.
  2. Imprisonment: refers to victims who have been deprived of their physical liberty, been sentenced, and confined to a prison.
  3. Disappeared: as defined in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, disappearance refers to “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”
  4. House Arrest: refers to victims who have been deprived of their physical liberty and are confined to their residence or another location outside of a prison.
  5. Forced Renunciation of Faith: refers to victims who have been legally or physically coerced into renouncing their faith.
  6. Torture: as defined in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, torture refers to “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as…any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

SOURCES

The information contained in this database is compiled through USCIRF's ongoing monitoring of the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom abroad. This includes communicating with, and reviewing information from, affected individuals and groups, as well as organizations that focus on religious freedom, related human rights, and/or religious or political prisoners.

Due to the sensitive nature of the circumstances included in this record, some information may not be publicly viewable. However, all individuals included in this database are represented in the analyses contained in the Charts section, even if their individual profile sections are not publicly viewable. 

LIMITATIONS

USCIRF strives to provide credible and current information. However, due to the policies of foreign governments and the lack of independent news and human rights organizations in the countries represented in this database, it is difficult to obtain, confirm, and verify comprehensive information about all victims. It is also impossible to capture all incidents of victimization. The cases within this database should be viewed as indicative of the violations practiced by the governments or non-state actors, not as exhaustive or representative lists of total victims or a reflection of worldwide trends. Characterizations of aspects on the victim’s profile, including their faith and ethnicity, are based on self-reporting.

CONTRIBUTIONS

USCIRF owes a special thanks for all organizations that have supported in the development of the FoRB Victims List, including the assistance and monitoring of organizations such as the Human Rights Without Frontiers, Jehovah's Witnesses, United4Iran, and VietnamNOW.