U.S. Commission on InternationalUSCIRF Religious Freedom Annual Report 2012 Front Cover: Nearly 3,000 Egyptian mourners gather in central Cairo on October 13, 2011 in honor of Coptic Christians among 25 people killed in clashes during a demonstration over an attack on a church. MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom March 2012 (Covering April 1, 2011 – February 29, 2012) Commissioners Leonard A. Leo Chair Dr. Don Argue Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou Vice Chairs Felice D. Gaer Dr. Azizah al-Hibri Dr. Richard D. Land Dr. William J. Shaw Nina Shea Ted Van Der Meid Ambassador Suzan D. Johnson Cook, ex officio, non-voting member Ambassador Jackie Wolcott Executive Director Professional Staff David Dettoni, Director of Operations and Outreach Judith E. Golub, Director of Government Relations Paul Liben, Executive Writer John G. Malcolm, General Counsel Knox Thames, Director of Policy and Research Dwight Bashir, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Elizabeth K. Cassidy, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Scott Flipse, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Sahar Chaudhry, Policy Analyst Catherine Cosman, Senior Policy Analyst Deborah DuCre, Receptionist Tiffany Lynch, Senior Policy Analyst Jacqueline A. Mitchell, Executive Coordinator U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 800 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 790 Washington, DC 20002 202-523-3240, 202-523-5020 (fax) www.uscirf.gov Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom March 2012 (Covering April 1, 2011 – February 29, 2012) Table of Contents Overview of Findings and Recommendations……………………………………………..1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1 Countries of Particular Concern and the Watch List…………………………………2 Overview of CPC Recommendations and Watch List……………………………….6 Prisoners……………………………………………………………………………..12 USCIRF’s Role in IRFA Implementation…………………………………………………14 Selected Accomplishments…………………………………………………………..15 Engaging the U.S. Executive Branch and Foreign Governments……………………17 Testifying before Congressional Committees, Press Conferences, Briefing Congressional Staff, and Other Events………………………………………………22 Working with Congress………………………………………………………………24 Crapa Fellowship Program…………………………………………………………...25 Raising Public Awareness through the Media……………………………………….26 IRFA Implementation………………………………………………………………..26 Country Chapters: Countries of Particular Concern Burma…………………………………………………………………………………31 Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (North Korea)……………………………...41 Egypt………………………………………………………………………………….50 Eritrea…………………………………………………………………………………70 Iran……………………………………………………………………………………78 Iraq…………………………………………………………………………………….95 Nigeria………………………………………………………………………………..107 Pakistan………………………………………………………………………………120 People‘s Republic of China…………………………………………………………..136 Saudi Arabia………………………………………………………………………….158 Sudan…………………………………………………………………………………176 Tajikistan……………………………………………………………………………...184 Turkey………………………………………………………………………………...199 Turkmenistan………………………………………………………………………….228 Uzbekistan…………………………………………………………………………….242 Vietnam……………………………………………………………………………….260 Country Chapters: USCIRF’s Watch List Afghanistan……………………………………………………………………………282 Belarus…………………………………………………………………………………298 Cuba……………………………………………………………………………………301 India……………………………………………………………………………………304 Indonesia……………………………………………………………………………….309 Laos…………………………………………………………………………………….313 Russian Federation……………………………………………………………………..316 Somalia…………………………………………………………………………………320 Venezuela………………………………………………………………………………323 Other Countries and Issues Countries Closely Monitored: Kazakhstan, Bangladesh………………………………326 Other National and Regional Issues: Bahrain, Western Europe……………………….328 Freedom of Religion in U.S. Policy……………………………………………………329 International Organizations: United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe…………………………………………………………………330 Appendix 1: Biographies of USCIRF Commissioners……………………………………..332 Appendix 2: The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Selected Provisions........339 Appendix 3: International Standards for Constitutional Religious Freedom Protections…………………………………………………………………………………….342 Appendix 4: Introductions and recommendations from USCIRF’s study Connecting the Dots: Education and Religious Discrimination in Pakistan - A Study of Public Schools and Madrassas (November 2011)............................................................................................345 Appendix 5: USCIRF Policy Focus Crisis in Sudan (December 2011)................................353 Appendix 6: Excerpts from Crapa Fellows’ papers.............................................................364 Appendix 7: Expanded prisoner list for Pakistan.................................................................385 Appendix 8: Expanded prisoner list for Uzbekistan……………………………………….390 Appendix 9: Report for the USCIRF by the Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Research Center, on Legal Provisions on Fighting Extremism in China, Pakistan, and the Russian Federation (December 2011)…………………………………………………..396 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 2012 Annual Report OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Introduction Over the past year, while economic woes captured world headlines, an ongoing crisis of equal breadth and scope frequently went unnoticed. Across the global landscape, the pivotal human right of religious freedom was under escalating attack. To an alarming extent, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief was being curtailed, often threatening the safety and survival of innocent persons, including members of religious minorities. In Egypt, an epicenter of the Arab Spring, hope turned to dismay, as human rights conditions, particularly religious freedom abuses, worsened dramatically under military rule. Authorities continued to prosecute and sentence citizens charged with blasphemy and allowed official media to incite violence against religious minority members, while failing to protect them or to convict responsible parties. Law enforcement and the courts fostered a climate of impunity in the face of repeated attacks against Coptic Christians and their churches. Rather than defending these minorities, military and security forces turned their guns on them, using live ammunition against Coptic Christians and other demonstrators, killing dozens and wounding hundreds in Maspero Square. Other governmental actors over the past year also repressed the right to religious freedom, especially of religious minority members. Iran‘s theocracy targeted Baha‘is, as well as Christians, Zoroastrians, and Sufi Muslims. Members of these groups were harassed, arrested, and imprisoned, including Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian convert who was put on trial for his life. Some dissenters were even executed, while hatred was fomented against Jews through repeated Holocaust denial and other means. In China, the government made conditions for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims the worst in decades. The failure to prevent or punish violence against vulnerable religious minorities provided a grim portrait of how states can create or fuel a culture of impunity, encouraging private citizens or groups to threaten, intimidate, and even murder others. In Nigeria, the government for years had failed to stem Muslim-Christian violence or bring the perpetrators to justice, emboldening others to commit further bloodshed. The violence reached a terrible peak over the past year, claiming more than 800 lives, displacing 65,000 people, and destroying churches and mosques in the three days after Nigeria‘s presidential election, and at least 35 more lives in a series of coordinated church bombings on Christmas Day. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws and other discriminatory measures such as the anti-Ahmadi provisions have created an atmosphere conducive to chronic violence, which has worsened due to the government‘s failure to bring to justice, or even to charge, anyone for the March 2011 assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan‘s Federal Minister for Minority Affairs and a longtime religious freedom advocate. Coupled with the continued exportation of religious extremist material from Saudi Arabia across the Middle East and into parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, cultures of impunity have strengthened the hand of terrorist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ramping up killings and other abuses. 1 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 2012 Annual Report Whether Ahmadis, Baha‘is, Christians, or others, religious minority individuals and their communities are – to a chilling extent – in trouble. Across much of the Middle East, Christian communities that have been a presence for nearly 20 centuries have experienced severe declines in population, aggravating their at-risk status in the region. To be sure, religious freedom abuses harm members of religious majorities and minorities alike. But make no mistake: across much of the world, persons associated with religious minority communities often are harmed the most. Even when violations do not include or encourage violence, intricate webs of discriminatory rules, regulations, and edicts can impose tremendous burdens on these communities and their adherents, making it difficult for them to function and grow from one generation to the next, potentially threatening their existence. For example, while an electoral democracy, Turkey fails to legally recognize