Washington, Nov 17 - The U.S. State Department today released the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report, which depicts the state of religious freedom in every country of the world and has become a beacon of hope for the millions of believers suffering all forms of religious persecution including discrimination, confiscation of property, rape, imprisonment, torture and execution.

    Congressman Chris Smith, a prominent human rights leader in Congress and an original cosponsor of the landmark 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that requires the State Department to issue the annual report, welcomed the 2010 report as the first step of accountability for governments that fail to uphold the human right to religious freedom.

    “This report upholds the standard of the individual freedom of conscience and belief against political tyranny, cultural pressure, and the all-too-common human fear of those who are different than ourselves,” said Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It holds out the vision that social harmony is ultimately found not in shared religious beliefs, but in a shared commitment to the religious freedom of every individual. Under the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every person everywhere has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to worship, publicly or privately, alone or in a community, and to choose or change their religion and how they practice their religion.”

    Smith, who recently returned from an international anti-Semetism conference in Ottawa, plans to introduce a resolution this week condemning the Oct. 31 massacre of Catholics at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad and subsequent bombing of Christian homes, noted that the report on Iraq acknowledged few perpetrators of violence committed against Christians and other religious minorities in the country were arrested or punished. “Given the tragic and ongoing attacks against religious minorities in Iraq, arrest and prosecution of terrorists who attack minorities must be first priority for the U.S. and Iraqi governments,” he said.

    Smith noted the 2010 Report’s update on actions taken to address religious freedom in countries previously designated as Countries of Particular Concern and urged the State Department to not be reticent in the use of sanctions.

    “When we wrote the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, we intended that the sanctions regime be wielded much more actively than it has been wielded in the last 10 years.” Smith said. “The sanctions, like the IRFA, underscore that religious freedom is of primary importance to human dignity and violations of same will be taken very seriously in bilateral relations with the U.S. I trust that the State Department will fully use the tools given it by Congress, and that it will also consider designating Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPC) this year, in addition to countries previously named as CPC.”

    Smith underscored that the report’s depiction of Vietnam’s record on religious freedom showed grounds for CPC designation. The Vietnamese Government maintains tight control over religious groups and activities. Any religious activity not sanctioned by national and local government authorities, is met by cumbersome registration requirements, and significant delays. Government and law enforcement personnel have also been complicit in acts of physical force and harm to members of different faiths.

    “During the reporting period, we witnessed escalated violence in Vietnam including brutal beatings, forced renunciations of faith, and the deaths of religious followers,” Smith said. “Government-sponsored violence does not mark progress.”

    “In China, the religious freedoms of Muslims, Catholics, Protestants and Falun Gong practitioners are systematically repressed with relative impunity despite the rise of China on the world stage, and the high priority of U.S.-Sino relations in American foreign policy,” Smith said.

    “With the current crackdown on Uighur Muslims and ongoing savagery toward Falun Gong practitioners, China remains one of the world’s most repressive governments,” Smith said. “Equally worrisome, in recent years the Chinese government has become a global ‘market leader’ in religious persecution, setting up structures and techniques that are cruelly effective, and copied by other countries, such as Vietnam.”

    The 2010 report covers the period from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, and was compiled by the efforts of U.S. embassy staff around the world and their counterparts in the U.S.  The report recalls that religious freedom is the birthright of all people, regardless of one’s faith or absence of religious beliefs.  Religious freedom is defined in the report not only as a human right and social good, but a necessity for national and international stability. The report notes that, in an age when terrorist groups export their hatred around the world, religious practice free from government manipulation or marginalization is critical to international security.

    Today’s report augments the May 2010 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The USCIRF 2010 report also makes suggestions for how the State Department can fully implement its legislative mandate to promote religious freedom as a core U.S. foreign policy goal. USCIRF is a non-partisan federal agency whose Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives.