WASHINGTON: The United States designated 10 countries — including Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia — as countries of particular concern for alleged religious freedoms violations.
In addition to the four nations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken blacklisted Russia, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan for “having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”.
However, India, a member of the four-nation China-focused Quad alliance, escaped the list despite repeated recommendations, the latest in April this year, by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) — an independent, bipartisan federal commission — that it be placed on the religious freedom blacklist.
The April report also recommended that Blinken should impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for the “severe religious freedom violations” by freezing their assets, including barring their entry into the US.
But the recommendations never materialised amid fears that any US sanctions on India would be self-defeating for Washington as it would damage defence relations between the two nations concerned by the rising global stature of China.
According to US law, nations on the blacklist must make improvements or face sanctions including losses of US government assistance. However, the administration can waive such actions.
“The United States will not waiver in its commitment to advocate for freedom of religion or belief for all and in every country,” Blinken said in a statement Wednesday.
“In far too many places around the world, we continue to see governments harass, arrest, threaten, jail, and kill individuals simply for seeking to live their lives in accordance with their beliefs.
This Administration is committed to supporting every individual’s right to freedom of religion or belief, including by confronting and combating violators and abusers of this human right,” he added.
Nigeria, which was placed on the list last December under former President Donald Trump, was removed. Blinken is expected to visit the west African nation later this week amid his ongoing diplomatic tour of the continent.
Separately, the State Department said Algeria, Comoros, Cuba and Nicaragua have been added to a religious freedom watch list.
And al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, Daesh/ISIS, Daesh/SIS-Greater Sahara, Daesh/ISIS-West Africa, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Taliban were listed as entities of particular concern.
