A religious liberty watchdog is warning that the governments of 16 nations are involved in “egregious” religious liberty violations.

The latest report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has named Afghanistan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam as “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPCs) due to their “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of religious freedom. Ordinarily, USCIRF publishes an annual report recommending that the federal government designate certain nations as CPCs based on their religious liberty violations. However, last year, under the Biden administration, no new countries were designated CPCs, leaving only the 12 CPCs identified by USCIRF’s 2023 report.

In its 2025 report, USCIRF has recommended that President Donald Trump and his administration re-designate the 12 nations (Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) identified in 2023 as CPCs and expand the list to include four more nations (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam). In comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, said, “It’s good to see USCIRF raising concerns about the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. I hope the State Department takes these recommendations seriously and designates all of the recommended countries as Countries of Particular Concern.”

The religious liberty violations committed or permitted by the governments of Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan are well-documented. In Burma, the military — called the Tatmadaw — has been responsible for shelling, firebombing, and burning down churches and other places of worship; murdering priests and preachers; harassing, brutalizing, sexually assaulting, and even killing religious civilians, including children; carrying out the mass arrests of over 120 religious individuals, including monks and pastors; and forcibly displacing over 3.5 million people, including Christians and Muslims. The Tatmadaw has also targeted Muslims in the Rohingya region, burning down their homes and beheading those who dare to resist.

China

USCIRF classified China’s religious liberty violations as “among the worst in the world.” The Washington Stand has previously reported on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) restrictive, authoritarian “sinicization” policies, which has resulted in the destruction and desecration of places of worship; the use of state surveillance, blackmail, and threats to suppress dissent; mass arrests; and even genocide.

Cuba

Religious freedom conditions in Cuba, USCIRF said, are “dismal.” The commission’s report stated that in 2024, “The government supplemented its oppressive legal framework with legislation further restricting freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), harassed religious leaders and congregations, and wrongfully imprisoned individuals for their peaceful religious activity.” Notably, Cuba’s legislators passed a law allowing the government to strip individuals of citizenship if “peaceful religious activity [is seen] as conflicting with national interests.”

Eritrea

Eritrea’s government has actively and “systematically persecute[d] individuals for their religious beliefs,” according to the USCIRF’s report. The government regularly prohibits religious groups from “building or owning houses of worship or engaging in religious practices such as praying in groups.” Officially, the Tewahedo Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and evangelical Lutheran churches, and Sunni Islam are recognized as permitted religions in the country, but even members of these religious groups “faced restrictions and government backlash for practicing their religion, including stripping of citizenship.” Mass arrests have taken place across the country, with prisoners often being subjected to abuse, rape, and torture, sometimes to the point of death. At least 10,000 have been imprisoned in Eritrea, including many Christians, whom the government has labeled “agents of the West.”

Iran

In Iran, religious minorities have been targeted for mass arrests and incarceration, abductions and forced disappearances, torture, and executions. In 2024 alone, Iran’s government carried out 900 executions on charges related to religion. The country’s hijab laws are also strictly enforced, arresting, attacking, sexually assaulting, and even shooting women who refuse to wear a hijab.

Nicaragua

The government in Nicaragua has systematically targeted and oppressed Christians, especially Catholics, within its borders. President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have targeted and either exiled or shut down Catholic priests, religious orders, institutions such as seminaries and universities, and media outlets. Catholic priests, bishops, and seminarians have been abducted, arrested, tortured, and exiled from the country. Catholic journalists have been abducted and forcibly disappeared. Many religious prisoners have been stripped of citizenship and given a choice between exile and life imprisonment.

North Korea

USCIRF described North Korea as “one of the worst religious freedom violators in the world” in its report. North Korea’s “overarching ideological and enforcement framework for repressing any exercise of religious freedom remained in force” throughout 2024. The country’s atheistic government has arrested and incarcerated anywhere from 80,000 to 120,000 religious individuals, mostly Christians, in prisons across the country. According to USCIRF’s report, “Simply possessing a Bible, interacting with Christian missionaries, or engaging in worship can lead to severe punishment, including torture, forced labor, imprisonment, and execution.”

Pakistan

In Pakistan, religious minorities “bear the brunt of persecution and prosecutions under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law and suffer violence from both the police and mobs…” Those accused of acts such as defacing or destroying copies of the Koran have often been lynched. In one case, a mob actually broke into a police station in order to kill a tourist who had been accused of “blasphemy.” Government authorities have also approved of forced marriages and forced conversions, in which women and young girls are forced to convert before being forcibly married to Muslim men. When a 13-year-old girl escaped after being abducted and forced into a marriage to a 28-year-old man, police harassed and beat the girl’s father to reveal her location.

Russia

Muslims in Russia have been subjected to mass arrests and imprisonment and, while behind bars, have been tortured and forced to violate their religious customs and practices. Religious groups like Allya Ayat, Tablighi Jamaat, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Falun Gong, and the Church of Scientology have been declared “terrorist” or “extremist” groups, and their members have also been subjected to mass arrests and imprisonment.

Saudi Arabia

USCIRF observed “some improvements” in Saudi Arabia over the course of 2024, but noted that religious freedom conditions still “remained poor.” The report stated, “Challenges to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) included the constitutional prohibition on non-Muslim worship, egregious punishments for religious dissidents, criminalization of blasphemy, and a religiously based male guardianship system.” Over 200 death sentences were carried out by Saudi Arabian judges against those who protested religious discrimination. However, some measures were taken by the government to foster a modicum of religious liberty. Christians were permitted religious gatherings in private settings and stores were allowed to display and sell products and decorations naming Christmas and Easter. USCIRF said that it “observed a higher level of government integration of international FoRB standards than in years past, and conditions for the Shi’a Muslim minority also reflected improvement.”

Tajikistan and Turkmenistan

Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have both suppressed and targeted Muslims who subscribe to a different interpretation of Islam than the government. Ismaili Shi’a Muslims in Tajikistan have been harassed, arrested, and imprisoned. In Turkmenistan, authorities arrested Muslim dissidents, Christians, and other religious minorities, raiding their homes and places of worship and threatening the families of religious leaders and pastors. Furthermore, Turkmen authorities refused to allow religious dissidents to leave the country and have even threatened government employees with termination for not adhering to the state-favored interpretation of Islam.

In addition to the 12 long-time religious liberty offenders detailed above, USCIRF also urged that Afghanistan, Vietnam, India, and Nigeria be declared CPCs.

Afghanistan

Under the rule of the Taliban, Afghanistan has witnessed what USCIRF called “a continual and significant decline in religious freedom conditions,” including strict implementation of Sharia law. The Taliban’s “draconian religious edicts continued to disproportionately target women and girls as well as religious minorities who remain in the country, including Ahmadiyya and Shi’a Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians.” Women in particular have been subjected to harsh treatment under the Taliban’s Sharia law, resulting in widespread violence and even sexual assault against both adult women and girls. Other religious adherents have also been treated to “arbitrary detention, torture, corporal punishment, and other egregious abuses.” Under the Taliban, “public executions, lashings and floggings, stoning, beatings, and acts of public humiliation” have become increasingly common in Afghanistan.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, the dominant Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) “detained, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured members and advocates of unrecognized religious communities that sought to operate independently of state control.” According to USCIRF’s report, nearly 100 people have been imprisoned in Vietnam on religious grounds, Christians have been forced to convert to “registered” churches en masse, and pastors have been shot. The government and its affiliates have actively raided churches and other places of worship and pressured religious groups and individuals not registered with the government-sanctioned churches to renounce their faith or face arrest, imprisonment, and even torture.

India

In India, Hindu nationalists, often supported or encouraged by the government, have enacted “vigilante violence, targeted and arbitrary killings, and demolition of property and places of worship” against religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims. Religious minorities were also susceptible to legal targeting if the government determined their religious activity was “endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India.” Numerous Christians have also been arrested under India’s anti-conversion laws.

According to a report published last month by FRC, Christians in India “endure physical attacks from mobs; destruction of their property, homes, and churches; sexual assault; and legal prosecution and imprisonment based on false charges or for doing normal religious activities.” Christian women, in particular, have been attacked, publicly humiliated, sexually assaulted, and raped by Hindu mobs. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often condoned or encouraged acts of religious discrimination.

Nigeria

Nigeria has also become a particularly dangerous place for Christians. “Federal and state governments continued to tolerate attacks or fail to respond to violent actions by nonstate actors who justify their violence on religious grounds,” USCIRF reported. The jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram has been active in Nigeria, killing well over 50,000 Christians in the country between 2009 and 2023, according to the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law. Last year, Islamist extremists kidnapped at least 160 children, mostly Christian, and various militant Muslim groups killed at least 169 people, mostly Christians, throughout the country. Nigeria also has strictly-enforced blasphemy laws which have resulted in numerous Christians and other religious minorities facing prison sentences, sometimes in excess of 20 years.

Earlier this month, Family Research Council President and former USCIRF Chair Tony Perkins testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa regarding Nigeria’s religious liberty violations. Perkins told congressmen, “In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, vicious attacks and bloodshed continue to surge, week after week, month after month. Christians are the primary targets of this terrorism, facing murders, rapes, kidnappings, and constant threats.” He added, “[I]f we don’t address the religious freedom concerns there, the destabilizing effects could spread to other parts of the continent. This instability would likely increase the number of refugees moving into other parts of Africa and beyond.”

Perkins recommended that the Trump administration re-designate Nigeria as a CPC, condition tariffs and trade agreements with the country’s government on religious liberty improvements, and institute a U.S. “ambassador-at-large” for international religious liberty. FRC’s president concluded, “Addressing religious freedom in Nigeria will benefit not only Nigeria but also the United States. Ending violence against Christians and the looming threat of instability in Africa’s largest and richest country will ultimately make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous as well.”

In a series of social media posts Thursday, Perkins said, “It’s good to see USCIRF once again name the most egregious violators of religious freedom around the world. Now, it is up to the State Department to designate these governments as ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ on religious freedom. In particular, Nigeria must be added to the State Department’s CPC list this year.” He also encouraged the State Department to “name India a Country of Particular Concern,” observing, “Mob violence against Christians is fomented by rising Hindu nationalist sentiment. Anti-conversion laws are weaponized against Christians to punish pastors and intimidate and silence Christians.” He added, “India calls itself the world’s largest democracy, but this is not how a true democracy is governed.”

Addressing the four countries that USCIRF has recommended be added to the CPC list, Del Turco commented, “It is long overdue that Nigeria and India in particular be added to the CPC list. Some of the world’s most brutal religiously-motivated attacks against Christians and others have taken place in both Nigeria and India for decades, and the governments have chosen not to adequately protect their citizens — or, worse, been complicit in attacks. I want to see the Trump administration fearlessly call out these religious freedom violators.”

She added, “President Trump is known for his bold and unprecedented foreign policy. Now is the time to do what past presidential administrations have been too afraid to do — call Nigeria and India ‘Countries of Particular Concern.’”