19 September 2008
Annual Report Turns Spotlight on Abuses of Religious Freedom
State Department names countries where right to worship freely is curtailed
Washington — Burma, China, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan are named “countries of particular concern” in the State Department’s 2008 Annual International Religious Freedom Report.
At a State Department press briefing September 19 marking the release of the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States believes religious freedom is the “highest of ideals” and “a source of strength and stability” for the United States and all countries.
John V. Hanford III, the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, told reporters that the United States remains a “friend of the persecuted” and said there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world denied this fundamental human right.
The promotion of religious freedom is “a core objective of U.S. foreign policy,” both officials emphasized.
The United States’ International Religious Freedom Act, enacted in 1998, reinforces the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, which includes religious freedom in the 30 articles it lists as essential human rights for all individuals worldwide.
Burma, China, Iran and Sudan have been named countries of concern in each of the annual reports since their debut in 1999. North Korea joined the list in 2001; Eritrea and Saudi Arabia in 2004.
The most recent addition was Uzbekistan, designated in 2006 for its restrictive religion law, which makes it difficult or impossible for many religious groups to obtain legal status. Those restrictions result in many people arrested and imprisoned for their religious beliefs.
Once a nation is named as a country of particular concern, the U.S. government attempts to negotiate with that nation’s leadership to bring about improvements for religious rights. The United States also can impose financial sanctions against nations reluctant to broaden religious freedoms for their citizens.
ABUSES “BOTH BLATANT AND SUBTLE”
Saying the abuse of religious freedom can be “both blatant and subtle,” the U.S. report outlines five broad categories of abuse:
• Severe abuse by totalitarian regimes that regard religious beliefs as threats to their control;
• Government intimidation of religious minorities;
• Failure by governments to address intolerance and attacks against certain religious groups;
• Government enactment of discriminatory legislation or favoritism toward majority religions; and
• Discrimination against certain religions by identifying them as dangerous “cults” or “sects.”
Hanford said there have been encouraging improvements in religious freedom among some countries, especially Vietnam, in the past year. But he expressed disappointment that Jordan, which he described as having been a very tolerant country, recently increased its harassment of some religious practitioners.
MULITLATERAL THREATS
Both Rice and Hanford expressed concern about actions taken by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an intergovernmental organization comprising 57 states with majority or significant Muslim populations.
The conference, they said, has worked through the U.N. system to weaken religious freedom protections. Member nations, especially Pakistan, have raised the concept of “defamation of religions” in U.N. resolutions and reports. Islam, however, remains the only specifically mentioned faith in the resolutions passed on this topic at the U.N. Human Rights Council and General Assembly.
Rice said the U.S. fear is that calls for the prohibition of religious “defamation,” in actual practice, will limit freedom of speech, which will restrict religious freedom.
“The United States rejects actions that are offensive to particular religious traditions, but we do not condone the prohibition of free speech. That only weakens societies,” Rice said. “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate on new initiatives that both respect human rights and foster a climate of religious tolerance. But we are concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of religions concept, which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed at the United Nations. Instead of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks to limit freedom of speech and that could undermine the standards of international religious freedom.”
Efforts to export anti-blasphemy laws to an international level, Hanford said, will exert “a chilling effect” on the ability to discuss religion openly.
According to the report, the “flawed concept” of defamation of religions, “despite a pretense of protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance,” does, in fact, represent an attempt “to limit freedom of religion and restrict the rights of all individuals to disagree with or criticize religion, in particular Islam.”
Some governments, according to the report, have used this concept to curtail civil dissent selectively, halt criticism of political structures and restrict religious speech of minority faith groups.
The 800-page report, which covers 198 countries and territories, represents the work of hundreds of State Department officers at embassies and consulates around the world and includes the contributions from religious groups, nongovernmental organizations and individual human rights activists.
The reporting period covered by the 2008 Annual Religious Freedom Report is July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
See also “Religious Discrimination in Russia Remains Important Issue.”
For additional information, see the report’s introduction and executive summary.
The full report is available on the State Department’s Web site.
