Religious freedom deteriorating globally, report finds

Religious freedom has deteriorated across the globe in the past year, according to an annual report released this week.

A number of countries were found to be "plagued by extremism and religious freedom violations", with abuses committed by both government and non-government groups, the US commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has found.

The report highlights religious freedom violations in more than 30 countries, including China, Sudan, North Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria.

The USCIRF recommends that the US State Department add seven more countries to its list of "countries of particular concern", where "particularly severe violations of religious freedom are perpetuated or tolerated". These are: the Central African Republic, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria and Vietnam.

Among countries where religious freedom is deteriorating, China was highlighted. In the last year the Chinese government has stepped up its persecution of religious groups deemed a threat to state supremacy, says the report.

“Christian communities have borne a significant brunt of the oppression, with numerous churches bulldozed and crosses torn down,” write the report’s authors.

In Eritrea, 1,200 to 3,000 people are currently imprisoned on religious grounds. The country’s dictatorship controls the activities of all state-registered Orthodox Christian and Muslim communities. Non-registered religious groups are banned.

In countries such as the Central African Republic, areas of Iraq and Syria, governments are either almost non-existent or incapable of stopping acts of violence committed by these groups, warns the report.

"The governments of Syria and Iraq can be characterised by their near-incapacity to protect segments of their population from ISIS and other non-state actors, as well as their complicity in fuelling the sectarian tensions that have made their nations so vulnerable," the report concludes.

The report also brands Islamic State's (IS) treatment of Yazidis, Christians, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims (who do not comply to IS’s interpretation of Islam) as "a genocidal effort to erase their presence" from Iraq and Syria.

The international community must act to end religious freedom abuses, say the report’s authors.

Last week, chief executive of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, called on the United Nations to take legal action against IS and other terrorist groups to prevent the eradication of religious communities in the Middle East. He called for punishment of the perpetrators and for the establishment of international standards of justice and religious freedom.

Anderson's presentation came during one of three panel discussions at a conference on the 28 April sponsored by the office of the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN. 

On the 21 April, MPs voted unanimously to declare that IS is committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other minority groups. The vote will increase the pressure on the Government to take action.

Fiona Bruce, the MP who proposed the motion, said: “Never before during a genocide has the international community had such a full record of what was happening”.