State Dept. fails to sanction countries with worst religious freedom violations: report

In the 25 years since the U.S. State Department has designated countries with the worst records of religious rights violations as “Countries of Particular Concern,” it has applied sanctions related only to those violations just three times, according to a new report.

Sanctions are among the actions the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) calls on administrations to impose on CPCs, but those specifically in response to religious freedom violations have been used in only 1.8% of the 164 CPC designations since 1999, all in reference to Eritrea, according to the report this week by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

CPC designations resulted in application of sanctions already in place for other reasons in 67.7% of cases, USCIRF reported. In 24.4% of the CPC designations, countries violating religious freedom were granted a presidential waiver from sanctions based on “national interests.”

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