Pakistan Joins Eritrea, Vietnam on US's List of Religious Freedom Violators

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released their 2005 Annual Report on 11th May 2005. In it was announced 11 nations where it has been judged that religious freedom is being violated.

USCIRF was created by the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 to monitor the freedom of thought, conscience, religious and belief as guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The commission reports its recommendations to the U.S. President, the Secretary of the State and Congress.

According to the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) the United States will rule on whether a nation is a 'countries of particular concern' (CPCs). USCIRF released the list of CPCs and a Watch list of countries where religious freedom may be endangered.

The commission recommended 11 countries as CPCs: Burma, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

Last year in September, Secretary Powell re-designated Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan as CPCs and added Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Eritrea. In addition to these countries, the Commission has now listed 3 new countries - Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. There is serious concern that in these countries the government is engaged in or is tolerating violations of religious freedom.

India was removed from the CPCs' list since several developments were seen in the country as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost in last year's election. The BJP is a party connected to the Hindu extremist nationalists.

Also, the commission issued a Watch list of countries, where the conditions did not occur to be at the level requiring CPC label, but close monitoring of the trends and developments is needed. Countries in the Watch list are: Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and this year, Bangladesh was newly added.

The commission removed from the Watch list 2 countries: Laos and Georgia.

Laos' government has responded to the concerns of the international community and the Commission, and has taken several steps to improve the situation regarding the religion and religious freedom with many churches being re-opened and religious prisoners released. In Georgia, the number of violations against religious minorities decreased significantly.

In the report to Secretary of the State, the Commission also expressed concerns over Russia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Even though these countries are not present in the CPC list or Watch list, the Commission pointed out at the complicating situation in these countries and the importance of drifting the development to the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief especially in Afghanistan and Iraq.