WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) – The United States on Friday designated China, Iran and Russia, amongst others, as countries of explicit concern underneath the Religious Freedom Act over extreme violations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated.
Blinken in an announcement stated these designated as countries of explicit concern – which additionally embrace North Korea and Myanmar – engaged in or tolerated extreme violations of religious freedom.
Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam have been positioned on the watch checklist.
Several teams, together with the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group, a non-public paramilitary group that’s lively in Syria, Africa and Ukraine, have been additionally designated as entities of explicit concern. The Wagner group was designated over its actions within the Central African Republic, Blinken stated.
“Around the world, governments and non-state actors harass, threaten, jail, and even kill individuals on account of their beliefs,” Blinken stated within the assertion.
“The United States will not stand by in the face of these abuses.”
He added that Washington would welcome the chance to fulfill with all governments to stipulate concrete steps for elimination from the lists.
Washington has elevated stress on Iran over the brutal crackdown on protesters. Women have waved and burned headscarves – obligatory underneath Iran’s conservative costume codes – throughout the demonstrations that mark one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic for the reason that 1979 revolution.
The United Nations says greater than 300 individuals have been killed thus far and 14,000 arrested in protests that started after the Sept. 16 loss of life in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini after she was detained for “inappropriate attire.”
United Nations specialists have additionally known as on majority Shi’ite Muslim Iran to cease persecution and harassment of religious minorities and finish the use of faith to curtail the train of elementary rights.
The Baha’i neighborhood is among the many most severely persecuted religious minorities in Iran, with a marked improve in arrests and focusing on this yr, half of what the U.N. specialists known as broader coverage of focusing on dissenting beliefs or religious practices, together with Christian converts and atheists.
The United States has expressed grave considerations about human rights within the western Chinese area of Xinjiang, which is residence to 10 million Uyghurs.
Rights teams and Western governments have lengthy accused Beijing of abuses in opposition to the primarily Muslim ethnic minority, together with pressured labor in internment camps.
The United States has accused China of genocide. Beijing vigorously denies any abuses.
The different countries designated as countries of explicit concern have been Cuba, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The U.S. Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires the president – who assigns the operate to the secretary of State – to designate as countries of explicit concern states which might be deemed to violate religious freedom on a scientific and ongoing foundation.
The act provides Blinken a variety of coverage responses, together with sanctions or waivers, however they aren’t automated.
Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Jonathan Landay and Tyler Clifford in Washington
Editing by Matthew Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S. designates Iran, China as countries of concern over religious freedom
U.S. designates Iran, China as countries of concern over religious freedom
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U.S. designates Iran, China as countries of concern over religious freedom