2019 – Posted in: Daily News

U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

For: Preliminary & Mains

News Flash

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan, independent federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world, dedicated to defending the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad, has said there is an “overall deterioration of religious freedom conditions in 2018” in India, in its 2019 report.

India continues to remain a Tier 2 country, according to the Commission, a list it has been unable to get off of since 2009.

What a Tier 2 country mean?

A country in which “violations engaged in or tolerated by the government during 2018 are serious and characterised by at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious’ CPC [Country of Particular Concern] standard”.

The CPCs are designated by the State Department and the latest list, from November 2018, contains 10 countries (including Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia).

What is happening in India which worries?

It is becoming difficult to separate religion and politics.
Conditions for minorities have deteriorated over the last decade.
A multifaceted campaign by Hindu nationalist groups to alienate non-Hindus or lower-caste Hindus is a significant contributor to the rise of religious violence and persecution.

Positive developments

Communal attacks dropped by 12% in 2018 from their 2017 levels.
12% increase in the budget of the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Supreme Court’s push for a 11-point plan to counter mob violence.
Tenzin Dorjee, Commission Chairperson, dissented with the view that India’s religious freedoms continued to decline in 2018. “India is an open society with a robust democratic and judiciary system,” he writes in the report.

USCIRF

Created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan U.S. government advisory body, separate from the U.S. Department of State, that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress. USCIRF bases these recommendations on its statutory mandate and the standards in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international documents.

The 2019 Annual Report documents religious freedom violations and progress during calendar year 2018 in 28 countries and makes independent recommendations for U.S. policy.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

Source: The Hindu

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