USCIRF urges State Department to add Russia to list of worst violators of religious freedom

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the U.S. State Department to add Russia to the list of countries that are considered the worst violators of religious freedom.

USCIRF, a bipartisan panel created to make recommendations regarding the issue of religious freedom, has released its annual report on Wednesday, in which it listed Russia among six new Tier 1 "countries of particular concern" (CPC).

This is the first time in USIRF's 20-year history that the former Soviet state was included in the list.

Last week, Russia's Supreme Court banned the Jehovah's Witnesses from the country under a 1997 extremism law.

"On April 20, the Russian Supreme Court issued a ruling banning the existence of the Jehovah's Witnesses in that country. Their right to religious freedom is being eliminated thoroughly — and yet 'legally' under Russian law," the report noted, according to The Christian Post.

"Russia's continued use of its 'anti-extremism' law as a tool to curtail religious freedoms is one of the reasons USCIRF has recommended for the first time that Russia be designated as a 'country of particular concern,' or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act for particularly severe violations of religious freedom," it continued.

The report, which covers 2016 to February 2017, recommended that 10 countries, namely Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, be re-designated as CPCs, which is meant to signify nations that are guilty of severe violations of religious freedom.

It also called on the State Department to add Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam to the list of CPCs.

Terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State, the Afghanistan-based Taliban, and the Somali terror group al-Shabaab were listed in the report as "entities of particular concern" for the first time. The designations came after an amendment to the International Religious Freedom Act that required the U.S. to identify non-state entities that severely violated religious freedom.

The commission noted in its report that religious freedom violations are getting more common and more severe. It expressed concern that the state of religious freedom has worsened enough that observers are becoming "numb to violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion."

USCIRF also called on President Donald Trump to confirm a new ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, as David Saperstein, who assumed the position in January 2015, has already completed his tenure this year.