Explanation of the World Watch List
A specially-designed questionnaire is used to compile the World Watch List. The questionnaire contains 49 questions. A point value is assigned depending on how each question is answered. The total number of points per country determines its position on the WWL.
The questions cover various aspects of religious freedom, differentiating between the legal, official status of Christians (e.g. Does the constitution and/or national laws provide for freedom of religion?; Are individuals allowed to convert to Christianity by law?) and the actual situation of individual Christians (Are Christians being killed because of their faith?; Are Christians being sentenced to jail, labor camp or sent to a psychiatric hospital, because of their faith?). Attention is paid to the role of the church in society (Do Christians have the freedom to print and distribute Christian literature?; Are Christian publications censured/prohibited in this country?) and to factors that may obstruct the freedom of religion in a country (Are Christian meeting places and/or Christian homes attacked because of anti-Christian motives?).
The “variation” column gives an indication of how certain we are about the information obtained. Sometimes information is unconfirmed or incomplete. In that case, the “variation” will rise. Thus some countries may be ranked lower on the list because complete information is not available.
The WWL Ranking
The complete lack of religious freedom has brought North Korea again – for the fourth year in a row – to the first position on the World Watch List. The strict Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to hold the second position. Iran is new on place three, followed by a new number four as well, Somalia. Both countries were in the top ten last year, but rose a few positions. Though the total of points for the Maldives remained the same, the changes and moves in the scores for other countries in the top ten made the archipelago rise one place. Bhutan moved from eight to six, mostly under the influence of other countries but to some extent also due to a slight rise in points. On eight we find a new country in the top ten: Yemen. We received new information on the country, especially on the situation of Christians from a Muslim background, which led to an increase in points. There were some improvements in the situation of Christians in Vietnam and Laos, which made both countries fall a few positions in the top ten: respectively from number three and four to number seven and nine. There was no major change in religious freedom for Christians in China and as such, the country continues to have the same total of points, though it fell one position from number 9 to 10 under influence of the situation in other countries. Due to less reported violence against Christians in Afghanistan in 2005 than in the previous year, the country moved from the top ten, to position number 11.
Islam is the religion of the majority in five of the top ten countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Maldives and Yemen. Four countries have communist governments: North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and China. Bhutan is the only Buddhist country in the ten highest countries on the list.
Changes for the Worse
The status of religious freedom deteriorated in Iran, Uzbekistan, India and Bangladesh.
