The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to ensure that the violations of religious freedom by foreign governments have serious consequences, such as sanctions for aggressors.
The USCIRF, a federal commission responsible for providing policy recommendations to promote religious freedom abroad, transmitted those recommendations on its Annual Report 2025published on March 25.
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The report recommends “making appropriate policies changes to demonstrate significant consequences and foster positive change.”
The document also urns the Trump Administration to impose consequences on the countries that the United States Department of State currently designates as countries of particular concern (CPC), which is the label that is given to countries with violations of “systematic, continuous and atrocious religious freedom”.
The State Department designates 12 countries as CPC, including China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The report recommends renewing these designations and adding another four countries to the CPC list: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam.
During the last year of Trump’s first term, the department appointed Nigeria as CPC, but this designation was not renewed by former president Joe Biden. The USCIRF repeatedly urged the previous administration to include Nigeria in the list during the Biden mandate.
Tens of thousands of people They have been killed because of ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria in recent years. Christians had 6.5 times more likely to be killed and 5.1 times more likely to be victims of kidnapping. However, Muslims and other religious groups have also been victims of violence.
“The conditions of religious freedom in Nigeria (HAN) remained bad,” says the report. “Federal and state governments continued to tolerate attacks or did not respond to the violent actions of non -state actors that justify their violence with religious motifs.”
The report also pointed out that, in 2024, the conditions of religious freedom in Nicaragua remained bad. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has expelled religious, closed Catholic schools and media, and imprisoned dozens of Catholic clergy who oppose his socialist government. His regime has also attacked other Christian denominations.
“Religious communities in Nicaragua have continued to demonstrate a notable resilience to these threats,” says the report. “Its members meet discreetly, sometimes in the middle of the night, to exercise their freedom of religion or beliefs. They continue to provide mutual help while attending the spiritual needs of the community, although the Nicaraguan government considers each of these modest acts as deplorable.”
Although the Federal Law requires that administrations take measures against the countries designated as CPC, a report published by the USCirf last September revealed that, since 1998, some 164 CPC designations have only resulted in three new sanctions and a binding agreement with the United States.
The report revealed that US presidents have often found alternative solutions to action, such as appealing to existing sanctions to justify the non -adoption of new measures or simply suspend the requirement.
The recommendations include specific sanctions against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Military Board in Myanmar, certain entities and officials of the Chinese Communist Party (PCCH) and officials of the Government of Eritrea. It also promotes the imposition of specific sanctions in Iran, Nicaragua and India against people and entities that violate religious freedom.
In addition, the commission asks Trump to designate people to occupy key positions that are relevant to religious freedom abroad.
The report also encourages the Trump administration to reassure refugees fleeing religious persecution through the United States refugee intake program, a program that Trump has suspended. It also requests that the Administration establish a plan to fully comply with asylum laws.
The USCirf commissioners are appointed for periods of two years. Three are elected by the president and others by the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The majority of the mandates of the current members end in May 2026, although the mandate of one of those appointed by Biden will expire in May 2025.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter of the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various media, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.