A senior United States congressman has called on Washington to deploy every diplomatic and economic tool available after a landmark federal commission flagged 18 countries as the world’s most severe violators of religious freedom.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2026 Annual Report on March 4, documenting violations throughout 2025 and setting out policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress on advancing freedom of religion or belief abroad.
Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey and a longtime advocate for religious liberty, welcomed the report while pressing for stronger follow-through. “The United States must use every diplomatic and economic tool at its disposal to fervently defend the fundamental right of religious freedom,” Smith said in a statement.
Among the most significant findings, the report recommends adding five new countries to the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list, which is reserved for governments responsible for systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations. The new additions are Afghanistan, India, Libya, Syria, and Vietnam, joining 13 longstanding designees including China, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, and Russia.
Smith drew particular attention to Nigeria, where the scale of violence is described in the report as abysmal. According to USCIRF, nearly 53,000 civilians have been killed in targeted violence in Nigeria since 2009, with roughly 21,000 deaths recorded in just the past five years. In 2025 alone, gunmen abducted more than 300 children from a Catholic school dormitory, a Christian priest was executed, and a market vendor was burned alive following blasphemy accusations.
Smith recently introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 to combat the widespread religious violence there, requiring the U.S. Secretary of State to compile a comprehensive report on American efforts to address ongoing persecution and mass atrocities in the country.
The USCIRF report also expressed concern over the impact of U.S. foreign aid cuts, noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced reductions to 5,200 USAID programs, representing 83 percent of all USAID programs, including 85 percent of human rights and rule of law programs.
Smith has chaired more than 30 hearings across three congressional committees focused on religious persecution trends, and is the author of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, which expanded U.S. tools for advancing religious liberty through diplomacy, counterterrorism measures, and foreign assistance.
Beyond the 18 CPC designations, the report also recommends 11 countries for the Special Watch List (SWL) for severe violations that fall short of the highest threshold. New SWL additions include Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Qatar, and Turkey. See More