(OPINION) On April 28, 2020, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) launched its annual report, detailing the violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in 29 countries.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan, U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). It aims to monitor the implementation of the right to freedom of religion or belief around the world, following international law standards (as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). USCIRF makes policy recommendations to the United States President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.

Having undergone some changes, the 2020 report is focused on two groups of countries, those that USCIRF recommends the U.S. State Department should designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs, countries where the government engages in or tolerates particularly severe violations of freedom of religion or belief) and those that should be placed on the Special Watch List (SWL, countries where the government engages in or tolerates severe violations of freedom of religion or belief). 

The 2020 report makes several recommendations for the different branches that require attention. For example, the 2020 report recommends the U.S. State Department to redesignate Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as CPCs.

It further recommends designating India, Nigeria, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam as additional CPCs. It recommends that Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Uzbekistan should remain listed as SWL, and to be joined by 11 other countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Central African Republic (CAR), Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Turkey. Lastly, the 2020 report recommends to redesignate five non-state actors, including, al-Shabaab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Houthis in Yemen, ISKP in Afghanistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan as entities of particular concern (EPCs), and designate HTS in Syria as such. 

The 2020 report recommends the U.S. Administration to, among others, “increase the use of targeted sanctions to deter religious persecution by using human rights-related financial and visa authorities to impose asset freezes and/or visa bans on individual officials, agencies, and military units for severe religious freedom violations, citing specific abuses” as stipulated in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

On the topic of sanctions, it further makes a recommendation to Congress to “evaluate the policy tools available for targeted human rights-related sanctions to ensure maximum impact in curtailing abuses, including considering the permanent codification of the State Department’s authority under its annual appropriations law to impose individual visa bans for gross human rights violations and more clearly defining that authority’s relationship to Global Magnitsky sanction.”

Stressing the ever-growing issue of antisemitism, it recommends the US Administration to “ensure that combating anti-Semitism is a key priority of the IRF Alliance and encourage the UN Secretary-General to create a position in his office to engage with Jewish communities worldwide and to monitor and report on anti-Semitism globally.”  The 2020 report then proceeds with a detailed analysis of the situation in the 29 countries that justify the designations as CPCs or SWLs. 

However, as emphasized in the 2020 report: “The fact that a country is not covered in this report does not mean that religious freedom issues do not exist there, or that concerns discussed in previous annual reports have improved.” To substantiate this, the 2020 report comments upon worrying developments not discussed elsewhere in the report but requiring further attention. 

The 2020 report stresses the rise of antisemitism around the world, particularly in Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden. It warns about the spike in attacks on places of worship or holy sites, including in New Zealand, Sri Lanka and France. Furthermore, according to the 2020 report, several countries adopted or newly implemented legislation that increased the penalties for blasphemy, including, Bangladesh, Brunei and Singapore.

Lastly, and while China is considered in detail as CPC, the 2020 report comments upon the issue of Chinese influence on religious freedom internationally. Among others, it includes examples of Chinese diplomats opposing UN resolutions condemning human rights violations, China, as the permanent member to the UN Security Council, blocking a UN Security Council statement supporting the International Court of Justice’s ruling on Myanmar, or using economic and diplomatic leverage to discourage other countries from criticizing China before the UN.

As the 2020 report is being launched, it is now up to the United States President, the Secretary of State and Congress whether and how they will implement the recommendations. However, other states should not disregard the recommendations only because they were prepared with the United States in mind. Other states could adopt and implement many of the recommendations.

Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, PhD candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was re-published from Forbes with permission.