On October 14, 2015, Secretary Kerry submitted the 2014 International Religious Freedom Report to the United States Congress. Now in its 17th year, this congressionally-mandated Report comprises almost 200 distinct reports on countries and territories worldwide and continues to reflect the United States’ commitment to, and advancement of, the right of every person to freedom of religion or belief.

Key Points

1. In 2014, non-state actors committed some of the world’s most egregious abuses of religious freedom and other human rights. Government failure, delay, and inadequacy in combatting these groups often had severe consequences for people living under significant and dire restrictions on, and interference with, their exercise of freedom of religion.
2. In the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, a range of non-state actors including terrorist organizations, set their sights on destroying religious diversity.
3. Members of religious minorities were disproportionately affected. In these regions, religious intolerance and hostility, often toxically mixed with political, economic and ethnic grievances, frequently turned violent, resulting in death, injuries, and displacement.
4. The 2014 Report notes a continuation of many restrictive governmental policies affecting religious freedom including laws criminalizing religious activities and expression, the threat and enforcement of blasphemy and apostasy laws, prohibitions on conversion or proselytizing, and stringent or discriminatory application of registration requirements for religious organizations.
5.  Numerous authoritarian countries around the world, regimes co-opted the language of preventing and countering terrorism and countering violent extremism in their efforts to neutralize and repress political opposition emanating from peaceful religious individuals or groups.