USCIRF Releases 2024 Annual Report with New Recommendations for U.S. Policy
Highlights State of Religious Freedom Abroad after 25 Years of IRFA

Washington, D.C. – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2024 Annual Report, which documents developments during 2023. USCIRF’s 2024 Annual Report provides recommendations to enhance the U.S. government’s promotion of freedom of religion or belief abroad. This year’s report commemorates the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). This landmark law made promoting the guaranteed right to freedom of religion or belief a priority in U.S. foreign policy.

The 2024 Annual Report also recommends 11 countries for placement on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) based on their governments’ perpetration or toleration of severe violations of religious freedom. These include one that the State Department placed on that list in December 2023: Algeria—as well as 10 additional recommendations: Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. While the State Department included Vietnam on its SWL in December 2023, USCIRF believes the government of Vietnam’s violations rise to the level of CPC status. Additionally, USCIRF recommends the State Department add Kyrgyzstan to the SWL for the first time due to the Kyrgyz government’s heightened religious repression in 2023.

“Throughout 2023, the U.S. government regularly condemned abuses of religious freedom, imposed targeted sanctions on perpetrators, and advocated for the release of those imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their religion or belief.

The report also highlights key USCIRF recommendations that the U.S. government  implemented from USCIRF’s 2023 Annual Report—including adding Azerbaijan to the State Department’s SWL, imposing targeted sanctions on religious freedom violators, and advocating for religious prisoners of conscience, such as those included in USCIRF’s Frank R. Wolf  Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List.

The 2024 Annual Report can be viewed here.