A congressionally backed panel said yesterday that religious freedoms were deteriorating in Russia, Turkey and four other nations that were added to a watch list of countries where people’s rights to worship as they please or not to worship at all are at risk.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also named Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” joining 12 other countries that the commission considers the world’s worst violators.
In the same report, the commission removed Bangladesh from the watch list. Muslim Bangladesh, with a history of violence against minorities, especially Hindus, saw relatively little violence during December elections, and a 15-party alliance was sworn in to replace a two-year military-backed interim government.
Besides Russia and NATO-member Turkey, the commission added to the watch list Laos, Somalia, Tajikistan and Venezuela. They joined Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba and Egypt, already on the list.
Countries are placed on the watch list or the more serious “countries of particular concern” (CPC) list because their governments either discriminate against people for religious reasons or are unwilling or unable to stop religious violence by their citizens.
On Russia, the panel found particularly objectionable “a new body in the Ministry of justice with unprecedented powers to control and monitor religious groups.” It said the body was established early this year. It also decried “increasing violations of religious freedom by state officials, particularly against allegedly ‘nontraditional’ religious groups and Muslims.”
Turkey’s problem, as the commission saw it, was its interpretation of secularism. It has “resulted in religious freedom violations for many of the country’s citizens, including members of majority and, especially, minority religious communities.”
It noted a constitutional court’s overruling an effort by the government to let women wear Islamic head scarves in universities. It also criticized the government for refusing to recognize religious minorities as legal entities and state policies that effectively deny some communities legal and religious rights.
The commission used the report to ask the Obama administration to “give due consideration” to whether to abide by a law that requires the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom to be a “principal adviser to the president and the secretary of state regarding matters affecting religious freedom.”
So far, an ambassador-at-large has not been appointed.
Under an 11-year-old law, the USCIRF recommends to the State Department nations that should be considered “countries of particular concern,” which can bring sanctions for especially egregious conduct involving religious freedom. The final decision on the CPC list belongs to the State Department.
On the commission’s CPC list, Nigeria joined Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Nigeria was of “particular concern” because its response to violations of religious freedom and sectarian and communal conflicts was “inadequate and ineffectual.” It blamed federal, state and local authorities for failing to stop violence that the commission said has killed thousands.
The State Department’s official list of CPC countries includes only Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice signed off on the truncated list on Jan. 16, four days before Obama replaced George W. Bush as president and two years after the decision had been due.
A place on the list can bring sanctions of varying severity, but punishment was waived indefinitely for Saudi Arabia and 180 days for Uzbekistan. That period will end next month.
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