Blinken: US Is Committed to Protecting Religious Freedom

Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 6, 2025. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Jan. 16 reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to protecting religious freedom at home and abroad in a statement marking National Religious Freedom Day.

“The United States remains steadfast in its centuries-long commitment to protect the freedom of religion or belief for all, both at home and around the globe,” he said.

Since 1993, U.S. presidents have annually proclaimed Jan. 16 as Religious Freedom Day to commemorate the passage of Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom law on Jan. 16, 1786.

In his statement, Blinken said that “the United States’ dedication to the freedom of religion or belief continues uninterrupted.”

The secretary of state also said the Biden administration has “worked tirelessly to secure this right for everyone around the world” over the past four years.

Blinken referred to the administration’s determination of the actions of Burmese military members against the Rohingya people as “genocide and crimes against humanity,” which was announced in March 2022.

He also said the administration has expanded the International Freedom of Religion or Belief Alliance, an alliance of 38 countries, five friends, and three observers; protected “thousands of human rights defenders and individuals persecuted for their religious beliefs or affiliations”; released the first National Strategy to Combat Anti-Semitism and the first National Strategy to Combat Islamophobia and anti-Arab Hate; prosecuted hate crimes targeting religious minorities; and protected places of worship globally.

Blinken highlighted the annual country report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on religious freedom around the world.

In USCIRF’s 2024 report, the commission designated 17 countries as Countries of Particular Concern, including China, Russia, Burma, Iran, and India, and it listed 11 countries on its Special Watch List.

Blinken said U.S. diplomatic efforts at the U.N. and its coordinated actions with allies have"helped secure the release of religious prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua, the People’s Republic of China, Nigeria, Iran, Somalia, Vietnam, and elsewhere in the world.

“We have consistently taken action to pursue justice for victims and survivors and to promote accountability for those responsible for committing particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” he said.

In a proclamation published on Jan. 15, President Joe Biden said his administration has been funding global efforts to promote religious freedom and support victims fleeing religious repression, has been “cracking down on forced labor, which is often connected to the targeting of religious minorities,” and has targeted more than 240 individuals and entities in human rights sanctions under the Global Magnitsky program.

On Jan. 14, the Department of Homeland Security added 37 China-based companies to its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List for producing products or mining critical minerals in Xinjiang, where the Chinese communist regime is accused of human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.

Under the UFLPA, businesses are banned from importing products from companies on the list and anything mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in Xinjiang, unless they can prove that no forced labor is involved.

The Jan. 14 addition is the largest expansion to the list since the UFLPA became law in December 2021, bringing the total number of companies on the list to 144.

In July and August 2024, U.S. officials urged the Chinese regime to release practitioners of Falun Gong and to “uphold its international commitments and the promises made in its own constitution to protect the ‘freedom of religious belief,’ and end its now 25-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong,” a spiritual practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

The president also used the proclamation to condemn what he called “a shocking rise in anti-Semitism” and “a disturbing rise in Islamophobia.”