US panel names 13 countries as religious violators

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GEO 436 WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia and China are among 13 countries a U.S. government panel named on Thursday as serious violators of religious freedom. The panel’’s report also criticized the current and former administrations in Washington for doing little to make basic religious rights universal. That is the goal of the congressional act that founded the U.S.Commission on International Religious Freedom in 1998. The commission investigates conditions in what it calls “hot spots,”” where religious freedom is endangered. Its job is to recommend U.S. government policies to improve conditions. It is a “small but critically important point of intersection of foreign policy, national security and international religious freedom standards,”” the report said. “Regrettably that small point seems to shrink year-after-year for the White House and the State Department.”” This year’’s list of 13 “countries of particular concern ””included all eight named last year Myanmar, previously known as Burma; China; Eritrea; Iran; North Korea; Saudi Arabia; Sudan, and Uzbekistan. It also included Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

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