Episodes

Individuals imprisoned for their religion or belief continue to face state repression even upon their release. For example, in Saudi Arabia, China, and Egypt, many released prisoners face bans on leaving the country, preventing them from visiting family, speaking freely about their experiences, or finding work or residency in other countries. Such bans often have little oversight, transparency, or opportunity for appeal. In Vietnam, individuals are pressured not to speak to media or post on soci...

The Burmese military maintains its grip over Burma through arson, arbitrary detentions, airstrikes, killings, and other forms of intimidation and violence to instill fear in its people, including ethnoreligious minorities such as Rohingya and Chin. The lack of justice for the junta’s atrocities has deepened its resolve, yet Burmese people are seeking accountability through the legal principle of universal jurisdiction. On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight podcast, Commissioner Stephen Schnec...

Despite sanctions and repeated condemnation against the Burmese military, the ruling junta continues to unleash brutal attacks against its own people, including religious minorities such as Muslim-majority Rohingya and Christian-majority Chin, Kachin, and Karen communities. Several global efforts to hold the Burmese military accountable through a variety of international legal mechanisms are now underway. On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight podcast, Commissioner Stephen Schneck speaks with ...

Alongside advocacy efforts, targeted programming is a tool certain governments and intergovernmental agencies use to strengthen religious freedom. There have been several key programs that have advanced international religious freedom in Asia, including the now terminated USAID’s Asia Religious and Ethnic Freedom (REF) program and the United Nation’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight podcast, Chair Vicky Hartzler speaks with Nolen De...

In Central Asia, independent media plays an essential role in shedding light on freedom of religion of belief (FoRB) violations. As a result, Central Asian governments attempt to silence independent journalists and bloggers to conceal their FoRB abuses. Such intimidation campaigns often include harassment, the closure of independent outlets, baseless prison sentences, and more. However, Central Asian reporters in the diaspora and other foreign journalists have long filled in these reporting gaps...

North Korea remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for individuals from all religious backgrounds, particularly for Christians. Organized religion in North Korea has reportedly been almost entirely eliminated. North Korean escapee testimony is the primary and the most important source of information on the Kim regime’s violations of freedom of religion or belief in North Korea, yet fewer North Koreans than ever have been able to escape North Korea since the COVID-19 pandemic. Mean...

On November 5, 2025, the High Court ruled in favor of the family of missing Pastor Raymond Koh, finding the Malaysian government and police liable for his abduction and enforced disappearance in 2017. While the court’s decision brought comfort to Koh’s family, his whereabouts remain unknown. Similarly, there have been no substantial progress made to the cases of missing Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth Sitepu, as well as Shia activist Amri Che Mat. On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight P...

Vietnam’s government strictly regulates and controls religious affairs through state-approved religious organizations. Vietnamese authorities have frequently harassed, detained, arrested, and imprisoned members and advocates of unregistered religious communities that have sought to operate independently of state control. USCIRF’s Victims List documents more than 90 individuals who Vietnamese authorities have detained or imprisoned under national security charges for trying to peacefully practice...

The Chinese government under Xi Jinping placed an estimated one million Uyghurs in concentration camps, subjecting them to forced labor and other horrific abuses. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also destroyed or modified mosques all as part of a “sinicization” policy to assimilate by force or to eliminate perceived non-CCP influences and ethnic minority communities. U.S. government responses have included sanctions; legislation, such as the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the Uyghur Fo...

For decades, the Lautenberg-Specter program has provided a pathway for members of oppressed religious groups, including Christians, Jews, and Baha’is, with close family ties to the United States to escape persecution in Iran and the former Soviet states. By offering refuge to those fleeing religious persecution, the Lautenberg-Specter program underscores our nation’s leadership in defending religious freedom. On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight Podcast, Chair Vicky Hartzler speaks with Mark...

Youth play a crucial role in promoting religious freedom in Africa by advocating for greater religious literacy, inclusivity, and understanding. In East Africa, young people face challenges to religious freedom. The Youth Tolerance Committee (YTC), a non-governmental organization based in Kenya and Tanzania, addresses these challenges head-on across the region, with the fundamental goal that communities and government respect all religions or beliefs and hear every voice. On today’s episode of ...

In June 2025, USCIRF commissioners traveled to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to assess religious freedom conditions. During the delegation, USCIRF confirmed that both governments continue to arbitrarily apply a broad and vague legislative framework to target peaceful religious activities of independent Muslims and religious minorities. In its 2025 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. Department of State place Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan on the Special Watch List for severe violations of rel...

On this episode of the USCIRF Spotlight Podcast, Commissioner Stephen Schneck is joined by Mariam Wahba, an Egypt expert and Research Analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mariam has written extensively on the Egyptian government’s targeting of Egypt’s indigenous Coptic Christian community, and will elaborate on specific laws, policies, and judicial decisions that are repressing a range of other religious minority communities, including Jews, Baha’is, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Qur’ani...

Since 2012, USCIRF has recommended Tajikistan for designation as a Country of Particular Concern for the government’s egregious, ongoing, and systematic violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). Among the particularly severe violations of religious freedom occurring in the country, the Tajik government regularly detains and imprisons individuals for their peaceful religious activities based on arbitrary “extremism” charges. FoRB victims largely include independent Muslims who deviate f...

Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community continues to be severely and systematically persecuted by the government. The Pakistani government has enacted a series of discriminatory laws and ordinances that restrict Ahmadiyya Muslims’ ability to observe their faith, including identifying as Muslim. In the first half of 2025, spikes in targeted violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan have contributed to a growing climate of fear. Authorities have increasingly prevented Ahmadiyya Mus...

Cuba and Nicaragua have ranked among the world’s most repressive governments toward religious freedom for years. In 2025, exiles and civil society organizations reported continuing severe restrictions on religious communities, including the banning of religious processions, surveillance and harassment of clergy, and legal constriction of religious groups. In some regards, the level of repression is escalating, considering indicators such as the re-imprisonment in June of a freedom of religion or...

The Eritrean government does not recognize religious communities other than the Tewahedo Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran churches, along with Sunni Islam. As a result, there are dozens religious minorities including Jehovah’s Witnesses (including several religious leaders), Baptists, and Pentecostals currently incarcerated in Eritrea. Authorities pressure prisoners to renounce their faith and ban praying aloud, singing, preaching, and possessing religious books. In 1994, polic...

The U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, often referred to as the IRF Ambassador, plays a vital role in the U.S. government’s promotion of international religious freedom. Pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the IRF Ambassador is mandated to head the Office of International Religious Freedom, or IRF Office, at the State Department. Additional duties include serving as the principal adviser to the President and Secretary of State on matters...

China has perpetrated gross religious freedom violations against religious groups of recognized religions through its “sinicization of religion” policy. However, the government also persecutes many religious groups of unrecognized religions and spiritual movements, such as Falun Gong and Church of Almighty God, under the Article 300 of the Criminal Law. Article 300, which was adopted in 1997, punishes individuals who organize or participate in “any superstitious sect, secret society, or cult org...

Religious freedom concerns are increasing in Sudan’s current brutal civil war. There are increasing reports of attacks on places of worship and other incidents that violate freedom of religion or belief. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have entrenched Sudan in the war since April 2023. The subsequent four years of instability and violence have created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, placing civilians across religious, ethnic, and tribal distinctio...

The Nigerian federal government enforces blasphemy laws that include a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment for acts “persons consider as a public insult on their religion.” Twelve Nigerian state governments also enforce their own more stringent blasphemy laws to prosecute and imprison individuals perceived to have insulted religion, including Christians, Muslims, and humanists. There are now four Nigerians incarcerated and convicted of blasphemy, including two religious leaders. In 2021, po...

One of the most important elements of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 is the requirement for the U.S. Secretary of State to designate the world’s worst violators of religious freedom as Countries of Particular Concern and to enact accountability measures as a result of those designations. Subsequent legislation created a Special Watch List for other countries with significant violations and created a new category of Entities of Particular Concern for nonstate actors that commit s...

China has been described as the “most prolific,” “sophisticated, far-reaching, and comprehensive” perpetrator of transnational repression in the world. It has targeted many religious communities in diaspora, including Uyghur Muslims, Protestant Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and members of the Church of Almighty God. Specific transnational repression tactics used by the Chinese government include stalking, harassment, intimidation or threats, assault, kidnapping, forcin...

The governments of Central Asia—that is Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—influenced by decades of Soviet rule, maintain similar legislation to combat “extremism.” Each of these governments uses these laws beyond just addressing legitimate security threats to penalize individuals engaged in peaceful religious activities. Enforcement measures have included harassment, fines, forced renunciations of faith, detainment, imprisonment, and, at times, torture and extrajud...