Washington: Pakistan has been declared as the worst country in terms of religious freedom, a congressional- established commission on international religious freedom has asked the Obama Administration to designate Pakistan as ‘country of particular concern’ citing “egregious” violations.
“The just-released IRF (International Religious Freedom) Report leaves no doubt that the egregious nature of the violations in Pakistan warrant a CPC designation,” Robert George, Chairman of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said.
In the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in twon for a meeting with US President Barack Obama, George urged that the state Department to further expand its CPC list reflect the severe violations occurring in seven other countries, such as Pakistan, which “USCIRF has called the worst situation in the world for religious freedom for countries” not currently designated by the US government as CPCs.
CPC nomination is given to the countries or for those governments that “indulge in or tolerate”systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) requires the US annually to designate as “countries of particular concern” or CPCs, and to take a seviour action to encourage improvements in each CPC country.
“Now that the IRF Report has been released, the next step is for the State Department to promptly designate the worst violators as CPCs and to leverage those designations to press for much-needed reforms in those countries,” George said.
USCIRF’s 2015 annual report, released in April, recommended that these countries be re-designated as CPCs, and also called for eight additional designations: Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.
