07/04/2019 Pakistan (International Christian Concern)- The U.S. State Department, after a meeting last week in Washington D.C discussing the state of religious freedom worldwide, listed Pakistan and Burma as two of ten Countries of Particular Concern. The annual report on International Religious Freedom details the spectrum of discrimination religious minorities experience under oppressive governments, intolerant social systems and unruly citizens, worldwide.

While the report is an extremely helpful document, often the section that gets the most attention is the section on Countries of Particular Concern. By U.S law, congress has the option to enact economic sanctions on these countries if other options such as diplomatic arrangements have failed.

Countries of Particular Concern were found to have engaged or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, (and) egregious violations of religious freedom,” Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo said. These countries will definitely be considered for high priority action against religious persecution in the coming months.

The Chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Tony Perkins said, “We encourage the State Department to refrain from using pre-existing sanctions or indefinite waivers that provide little or no incentive for governments of CPC-designated countries to reduce or halt egregious religious freedom violations.”

Pakistan has been on the recommended CPC list since 2002 but was first officially added by the State Department in 2018 as a result of their use of blasphemy laws and forced conversions. The country remains on the 2019 list for its severe violations of religious freedom, especially towards the 2% Christian population.

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