World's Worst Religious Freedom Violators

Bangalore: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its annual report, has named India in the “Watch List Countries. Tajikistan is the latest entrant in the U.S. government list of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedom. ” “Across the global landscape, the pivotal human right of religious freedom was under escalating attack. To an alarming extent, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief was being curtailed, often threatening the safety and survival of innocent persons, including members of religious minorities,” the report says. Governments that have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom is listed in the category called the countries of particular concern (CPCs) and USCIRF recommended that the Secretary of State designate 8 more countries as CPCs apart from the already designated eight. While Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan are already designated as CPCs by the Department of States, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam are recommended by the USCIRF for CPC designation.

USCIRF also maintains a Watch List of countries where the serious violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments do not meet the CPC threshold but require close monitoring. India has been named in this category along with along 8 other nations including Russia, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Belarus, Laos and Somalia. Below are excerpts from the USCIRF report.

India

Progress in achieving justice for victims of past large-scale incidents of communal violence in India continued to be slow and ineffective. In addition, intimidation, harassment, and occasional small-scale violence against members of religious minority groups continued, particularly against Christians in states with anti-conversion laws. While there has been no large-scale communal violence against religious minorities since 2008, and despite the Indian government‘s recognition of past communal violence and the creation of some structures at various levels to address these issues, the deleterious pace of the judicial responses and the adopted anti-conversion laws enable impunity.

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