Earlier this week, Jeremy Barker, RFI Associate Vice President for International Strategies; Ryan Zoellner, RFI research consultant; and RFI President David Trimble briefed commissioners and professional staff of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) ahead of the release of a report on U.S. international religious freedom policy. 

USCIRF Chair Stephen Schenk hosted the meeting. Joining him were commissioners Meir Soloveichik, Maureen Feguson, and Asif Mahmood. In attendance from USCIRF’s professional staff were Erin Singshinsuk, Executive Director; Elizabeth Cassidy, Senior Strategic Advisor; and Jamie Staley, Director of Research and Policy. 

The report, for which Barker is the lead author, with support from Zoellner, is centrally focused on the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) mechanism in U.S. foreign policy. Specifically, it examines how that process has been utilized in the 25 years since the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which created the practice of CPC designations. The report also offers recommendations on how the U.S. might employ these designations, and the actions they authorize, more effectively going forward to advance international religious freedom (IRF). 

Across the more than 160 CPC designations the U.S. has made, RFI’s research highlights that a limited number of explicit presidential actions were actually taken. Among the actions mandated by law, the application of existing sanctions (i.e., enforcing sanctions already in place due to other violations) and national interest waivers (i.e., determinations to forgo sanctions to advance another “important national interest of the United States”) are the most common. In other words, inaction is the most common form of U.S. government “action” taken in response to the last quarter century of CPC designations.

RFI interviewed nearly two dozen current or former diplomats, congressional staffers, and religious freedom scholars and advocates for this report. RFI also analyzed more than 260 State Department country reports, covering every year for all CPC-designated countries. Based on these sources, RFI worked to identify best practices and lessons learned from past experience. Where has there been meaningful U.S. diplomatic efforts not only condemning “particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” but also tangibly advancing religious freedom in specific countries? This report ultimately aims to respond to that question and will be publicly available in the coming weeks.