News Archive

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2020 Annual Report, documenting significant developments during 2019, including remarkable progress in Sudan and a sharp downward turn in India, and making recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad in 2020.   The direct link to the…

Even as the world, and Washington, D.C., has turned its attention to addressing the coronavirus, a slow but persistent revolution is underway in an area of policy that usually has flown under almost everyone’s radar. That issue is international religious freedom, or IRF, as we in the business call it, and the impact of this revolution…

The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) in a statement this week, announced that their 2020 Consultation in Kyiv, Ukraine will be postponed until March/April 2021.  In making the announcement they referred to the restrictions and policies adopted by the Ukrainian government toward the COVID-19 virus. “We are certainly disappointed, but understand the thoughtful reasoning behind the…

So is the persecution of Christians ignored in the media?  Dr. Paul Marshall, Baylor Professor and Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute assesses and unpacks some of the reasons in this insightful interview, by Edward Pentin in the National Catholic Register. https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/baylor-professor-assesses-the-main-factors-in-christian-persecution

The 10th annual report from Pew dives deeper into the ways government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion have changed, from 2007 to 2017. https://www.pewforum.org/2019/07/15/a-closer-look-at-how-religious-restrictions-have-risen-around-the-world/

Uzbekistan has long been one of the world’s most repressive societies. But a new president appears to be loosening the state’s grip, little by little.  Great article by Navbahor Imamova. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/10/uzbekistan-freedom-slowly-expanding/599446/  

Persecution of religious minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims, has risen around the world over the last few years, and a new trend is emerging where non-state actors are playing an increasing role in targeted attacks.  Watch Nadine Maenza, Vice Chair of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, at the Taiwan International Religious Freedom…

In a speech delivered on July 4th as part of the Embrace the Middle East event, His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, has urged the public not to view martyrs as victims but as witnesses — challenging the media to take seriously the responsibility they have in reporting persecution. “Labelling martyrs as…

CSW, UK has called on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to make it the priority of his second term to defend freedom of religion or belief,  strengthen Indonesia’s tradition of religious pluralism, and counter religious extremism and intolerance. In a new report released today following a three-week visit to Indonesia in April, CSW, a member of…

BREAKING NEWS:  The Religious Liberty Partnership has released a Statement on Nigeria calling on Christians worldwide for prayer and action.  Entitled the Abuja Statement on the Crises in Central Nigeria, the document states that though “there has been a long history of disputes between nomadic herders and farming communities across the Sahel,” the current attacks…