SW News: In its 2023 Annual Report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) details developments from 2022, including notable deterioration in nations like Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, and Russia.
The Report offers suggestions to improve the American government's support for religious and philosophical freedom abroad.
The Commission describes trends from 2022 in its 2023 Annual Report, noting significant declines in countries like Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, and Russia.
In the Report, the USCIRF makes recommendations for strengthening American government assistance for religious and intellectual freedom worldwide.
These include the 12 countries—Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—that the state department designated as Countries of Particular Concerns (CPCs) in November 2022, as well as the additional five countries—Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam.
In 2022, the state department for the first time designated Nicaragua and Cuba as CPCs. The state department's Special Watch List (SWL) should list 11 nations that the Report recommends due to their governments' egregious breaches of religious freedom.
The state department added Algeria and the Central African Republic (CAR) to that list in November 2022, and nine additional countries have also been suggested: Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
Due to Sri Lanka's deteriorating conditions for religious freedom in 2022, USCIRF is advising the state department to list it on the SWL for the first time. The USCIRF also urges the state department to designate seven non-state actors as Entities of Particular Concern (EPCs) for their flagrant, persistent, and systemic abuses of religious freedom. Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Islamic State in West Africa Province, and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin were all named as EPCs by the state department in November 2022.