RFI proudly participated in the 2025 International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which took place in Washington, D.C. from February 3 – 5. The premier and largest religious freedom gathering around the world, the IRF Summit brings together a broad coalition of partners annually to support and advance religious freedom around the globe. RFI led and participated in several events, in addition to co-sponsoring the Summit as part of our ongoing partnership with Pepperdine University. Read more about RFI’s contributions below.

Spotlight Africa: A Global Justice and Religious Freedom Initiative

This special breakfast session was held on the main stage at the IRF Summit just before Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the audience. Jointly sponsored by RFI and Pepperdine, the event highlighted the increasingly violent religious persecution occurring throughout Africa. Speakers included the Chief Justice of Kenya, Martha Koome; Ambassador Sam Brownback; Pepperdine University President Jim Gash; RFI President David Trimble; Director of the Sudreau Global Justice Institute at Pepperdine University Cam McCollum; and RFI co-founder Byron Johnson, who is also Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

The discussion focused on efforts to galvanize the religious freedom movement throughout Africa to respond to the growing crisis. In Trimble’s concluding comments, he called for consensus at the IRF Summit for petitioning the new administration to redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” for the first time since 2021. The event also announced the launch of IRF Summit Africa, to be held in June as a joint effort of RFI, Pepperdine, and the IRF Summit.

University Partnership Program

Under the direction of Jim Bennett, Director of RFI’s National Center for Religious Freedom Education, RFI led the IRF Summit’s University Partnership Program, for undergraduate and graduate students to explore religious freedom as a core human right. The program entailed a full-day seminar with high-impact training sessions, guided simulations, and conversations with government officials, leading scholars, and religious freedom leaders, including IRF Summit co-chairs Ambassador Sam Brownback and Katrina Lantos-Swett. Participants then joined the main IRF Summit gathering.

RFI Interview Booth

RFI conducted a series of interviews with religious freedom leaders at the IRF Summit, including government officials, civil society leaders, young professionals, and students who attended our University Partnership Program. For example, RFI’s Nathan Berkeley interviewed Pepperdine University President Jim Gash and RFI President David Trimble on their vision for the RFI-Pepperdine partnership, IRF Summit Africa, and a forthcoming Statesmanship and Religious Freedom Seminar to be held on Pepperdine’s Malibu campus in late March, pictured in the above left photo. The above right photo shows Trimble interviewing Anna Bryner, a former RFI research assistant who is now a lawyer and a rising leader in the religious freedom movement. RFI will release this interview series in the near future.

Town Hall: Cross Section of the Religious Freedom Movement

This panel discussion brought together a range of experts across the IRF space for a creative discussion on how the religious freedom movement can better coordinate across disciplines such as media, development, advocacy, and the government. Speakers included Lauren Green, Chief Religion Correspondent at Fox News; Nadine Maenza, President of IRF Secretariat; Myal Greene, CEO of World Relief; Amjad Khan, National Director of Public Affairs at Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA; and former RFI Research Assistant Anna Bryner, Associate Attorney at Crook Legal Group.

Other IRF Summit Events Featuring RFI:

• “Apostasy and Blasphemy Laws,” featuring RFI’s Paul Marshall as a panelist
  
• “Protecting Religious Freedom in Iraq,” featuring RFI’s Jeremy Barker as panel moderator

• “Policing Religion in the Secularized West,” featuring RFI’s Todd Huizinga, and covered in a recent article in National Catholic Register: “International Religious Freedom Summit Examines Religious Persecution in the West“

See the full IRF Summit schedule here.