An independent watchdog on religious liberty has beneficial Azerbaijan be listed among the many State Department’s “countries of particular concern” which have committed essentially the most egregious violations of non secular freedom.
In its annual report, issued Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also urged the addition of Kyrgyzstan to the department’s second-tier “special watch list.”
The report comes months after the twenty fifth anniversary of the enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act was officially marked in October. The law created in 1998 the role of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and the Office of International Religious Freedom throughout the department and the bipartisan commission.
“USCIRF’s first annual report, issued in May 2000, focused totally on China, Russia, and Sudan,” reads the introduction of the commission’s 2024 Annual Report. “Today, the governments of China and Russia remain among the many world’s worst violators of their people’s religious freedom, in addition to amongst essentially the most energetic perpetrators of cross-border repression and other malign activities abroad, including within the United States.”
The nine commissioners presented the report’s findings in a virtual event on Wednesday.
Commissioner Stephen Schneck said conditions in Azerbaijan had long been noted by the commission but had worsened in 2023, the 12 months of focus for the report.
“USCIRF documented a big and alarming increase within the variety of prisoners arrested on the premise of faith or belief in Azerbaijan throughout the 12 months,” he said of the previous Soviet republic. “In addition, authorities are often accused of torturing or threatening sexual violence to elicit false confessions from detainees, with those perpetrating such violence facing no accountability.”
The commissioners beneficial that the State Department also retain the dozen countries which are currently designated as “countries of particular concern,” which the department determined are committing “systematic, egregious, and ongoing” religious freedom violations: Myanmar (which the department refers to as Burma), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
They also continued to hunt the additions of Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam to the CPC list.
Schneck said Kyrgyzstan is a first-time nominee by USCIRF for the special watch list, partially because of presidency targeting of Muslims who usually are not aligned with the interpretation of their religion preferred by the state and the labeling of peaceful religious groups as “extremist.”
“In 2023, Kyrgyz authorities increasingly enforced long-standing restrictive laws regulating religion and penalizing peaceful religious practices comparable to online religious expression and collective worship and possessing unauthorized religious materials,” he said of the Central Asian country.
The State Department currently has designated Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam as special-watch-list countries.
The commissioners beneficial that Algeria be kept on that second-tier list and that, along with Kyrgyzstan, these other countries be added: Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Their 102-page report noted global developments, including USCIRF’s identification of 96 countries with blasphemy laws, which penalize religious expression and acts “deemed insulting or offensive” with the death penalty, prison sentences and fines. It also cited the destruction of non secular sites in war zones and conflicts, including the oldest mosque and a convent in Gaza and churches and monasteries within the Israel-Hamas war; houses of worship in Ukraine since Russia invaded that country; and mosques and churches attacked in Sudan.
The report noted “a disturbing global rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred during 2023,” early within the 12 months and within the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the commission’s outgoing chair, noted that the commission’s work affects its members personally, with a few of them or their families touched by the religious freedom issues they’re addressing. He reiterated his because of the Rev. Fred Davie, USCIRF’s vice chair, for joining him in leaving a delegation trip to Saudi Arabia when the rabbi was asked to remove his kippah, or yarmulke, during their visit in March.
Cooper also said all of the commissioners face questions of their overseas trips about how they, as U.S. representatives, can indicate others’ religious freedom violations when their very own country has religious hatred too.
“It’s a good query,” Cooper said on the conclusion of the event announcing the report. “It’s something that we each will grapple with day by day. But we also can point to the undeniable fact that, because the world’s biggest democracy, the way in which during which we cope with hate is we confront it. We don’t sweep it under the rug. We don’t make consider it’s not there.”
