Bipartisan watchdog criticizes Biden State Dept.’s omissions in religious freedom designations
December 6, 2022 | District of Columbia
A congressionally mandated religious freedom watchdog panel is “disappointed” in the U.S. State Department’s decision Friday to leave Nigeria and India off its annual list of countries where religious freedom violations are most concerning, despite pleas from advocacy groups.
Nury Turkel, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement, “there is no justification” for the State Department not to designate Nigeria and India as “countries of particular concern” (CPC).
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 first required the CPC designations to prioritize “policy options designed to bring about a cessation of the particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Countries subject to the State Department’s “CPC” designation may face negative consequences, including the possibility of crippling sanctions.
On Friday, the State Department designated China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as CPCs while naming Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam to the lower-tier special watchlist designation. … (Excerpt from The Christian Post)
