The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its 2026 Annual Report on March 4, warning that religious freedom abuses remain widespread around the world and urging the U.S. government to take stronger action against governments and groups responsible for persecution.
The congressionally mandated report evaluated religious freedom conditions in 29 countries during 2025 and provided policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress aimed at advancing freedom of religion or belief abroad.
“China arrests underground church members, mob violence is on the rise in India and Pakistan leading to attacks on religious minorities and the destruction of their homes, Burma’s military bombs houses of worship, and Tajikistan denies parents the right to teach their children about faith,” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said in a press release announcing the report.
“As USCIRF’s Annual Report shows, far too many people in key nations are denied religious freedom through unjust laws, discrimination, harassment, violence, and even crimes against humanity,” Hartzler said. “The U.S. government must continue to advance religious freedom abroad to make a difference for those facing religious persecution.”
‘Countries of Particular Concern’
According to the commission, the report recommended that the State Department designate 18 countries as “Countries of Particular Concern,” a classification reserved for governments that engage in or tolerate particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Those countries included Afghanistan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Libya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.
The report highlighted a range of threats to religious freedom, including violence by extremist groups, government repression of religious minorities, and laws used to restrict religious expression.
“Nigeria is facing a terrifying crisis of religious violence,” the report stated, noting that targeted attacks had killed “nearly 53,000 Nigerian civilians since 2009,” including about “21,000 in the last five years alone.”
The commission said violence in Nigeria included attacks on houses of worship, mass kidnappings, and killings carried out by militant groups and criminal networks targeting religious communities.
The report also said China continued a sweeping crackdown on independent religious activity, describing a campaign to “destroy all independent religious expression in the country” through arrests and other repression targeting religious leaders and house churches.
In Syria, the commission warned that sectarian violence remained a serious threat following the collapse of the previous regime in December 2024. The report said attacks in 2025 included massacres of religious minorities and a suicide bombing at a church in Damascus that killed Christian worshippers.
Broader global trends
The report also pointed to broader global trends affecting religious freedom, such as attacks on houses of worship, the targeting of religious leaders, and the use of legal systems to suppress religious groups.
“Each country in which such violations persist represents a distinct set of internal dynamics that have combined to repress religious freedom,” the report states.
“Religious freedom is a universal human right for all,” USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood said in the release. “Government repression and non-state actor violence are on the rise in many places around the world, often devastating targeted religious communities and taking innocent lives.”
Mahmood also called on the State Department to publish its own annual religious freedom report and make formal designations of countries and entities that violate the right to religious belief, saying doing so would keep the issue “at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy.”