Highlights from USCIRF’s 2022 Annual Report

Numbers-at-a-Glance

15 countries recommended for “country of particular concern” (CPC) designation

1 new country recommended for CPC designation

12 countries recommended for the State Department’s “Special Watch List” (SWL)

1 country added to USCIRF’s SWL recommendations

7 entities recommended for “entity of particular concern” (EPC) designation

23rd Annual Report

39 other USCIRF reports published in 2021

8 Commission hearings in 2021

47 USCIRF Spotlight podcast episodes published in 2021
 

Key USCIRF recommendations implemented in 2021 and early 2022

10 CPC recommendations, including the designation of Russia for the first time, an action USCIRF had recommended since 2017

3 SWL recommendations
8 EPC recommendations

2 key IRF vacancies at the State Department filled

Designation of Uyghur genocide

Diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics

Designation of Rohingya genocide

Increase in refugee resettlement ceiling to 125,000

Additional $155 million for Rohingya refugees and others affected by violence in Burma

Religious Freedom Conditions in 2021

130,000 Muslims remained in government-run internment camps in Burma

1 to 3 million Turkic Muslims in Chinese concentration camps

880,000 Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim children separated from their parents

85 religious groups in Vietnam designated as “strange,” “evil,” or “heretical” religions

130 religious prisoners released on bail in Eritrea

Nearly 6,000 organizations adversely affected by the financial regulations in India, including losing licenses to receive funds from abroad

2 targeted killings of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, as well as the desecration of 121 Ahmadi graves and 15 places of worship

105 guilty verdicts against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, including elderly and disabled members, as well those residing in Russian-occupied Crimea in Ukraine

Nearly 5 years after the defeat of ISIS in Iraq, almost 1 million Sunni Muslim Arabs, over 200,000 Yazidis, and tens of thousands of Christians remained in IDP and refugee camps there

Approximately 2,200 religious prisoners remained in prison in Uzbekistan

2,255 antisemitic incidents reported in the United Kingdom