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Posts Tagged ‘United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’ (5 found)
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom – Burma: 2016 Annual Report
In 2015, peaceful elections ended more than 50 years of military-controlled government in Burma, yet the new government faces myriad human rights chal-lenges. Throughout the year, Burma’s government and non-state actors continued to violate religious freedom; these violations became a defining element of the campaign season […]
• • •Remembering Prisoners of Conscience on Human Rights Day
Washington, D.C. – To commemorate International Human Rights Day tomorrow, December 10, the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) highlights the plight of prisoners of conscience around the world, particularly those imprisoned due to their faith or belief. […]
• • •Statement on USCIRF Visit to Burma
This is our first Commissioner-level visit to the country. We have had meetings with Union and state government officials, Rangoon-based representatives of ethnic and religious groups, representatives of non-governmental organizations, representatives of political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and religious leaders. We traveled to Rangoon, Mandalay, Meiktila, and Naypyidaw. In Meiktila, we welcomed the chance to visit camps for persons from both the Muslim and Buddhist communities who were displaced by spasms of violence in March 2013 […]
• • •USCIRF Deeply Concerned by Draft “Religious Conversion Law” in Burma
Washington, D.C. – The draft of the ill-advised “Religious Conversion Law” which Burma’s parliament released for public comment would further restrict religious freedom in a country considered one of the worst by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The May 27 draft responds to Burmese U Thein Sein’s request that parliament consider four laws demanded by a Buddhist organization connected to the nationalist movement known as “969.” The drafting committee will receive suggestions until June 20, 2014, and then will submit a draft law on conversion to the parliament […]
• • •United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2014 Annual Report
Political reforms in Burma have not improved legal protections for religious freedom and have done little to curtail anti-Muslim violence, incitement and discrim¬ination, particularly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority. Police failed to intervene effectively and the government has taken inadequate steps to address the underlying causes of sectarian violence or hold individ¬uals fully accountable. State-sponsored discrimination and state-condoned violence against Rohingya and Kaman ethnic Muslim minorities also continued, and ethnic minority Christians faced serious abuses during recent military incursions in Kachin state. Based on these systematic, egregious, ongoing violations, USCIRF continues to recommend that Burma be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, in 2014. The State Department has designated Burma a CPC since 1999 […]
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