As in previous years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued this year’s International Religious Freedom Day statement at the State Department, emphasizing the United States’ ongoing commitment to protecting religious freedom for all.
In February, the International Religious Freedom Coalition was formally established under the leadership of U.S. State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, who said in a Feb. 5 statement, “This coalition brings together powerful nations to use their resources to stop bad actors and fight for the rights of the persecuted, defenseless, and vulnerable.
Secretary of State Pompeo’s statement on International Religious Freedom Day 2020 at the State Department reads.
Twenty-two years ago today, the United States enacted the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), reaffirming our commitment to promoting and defending the fundamental right of religious freedom for all people around the world. Stemming from the vision of America’s Founding Fathers, the U.S. government understands that regardless of one’s religious beliefs, a person should be free to follow his or her conscience and organize his or her life accordingly. Religious freedom and themes related to human dignity have always been core priorities of U.S. foreign policy, and the world has taken note.
Today, however, the world’s three worst violators of religious freedom-China, Iran, and North Korea-continue to intensify their coercion to silence their people. Worse yet, China seeks to eradicate all beliefs that do not conform to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.
On the contrary, since the founding of the International Religious Freedom Alliance (IRFBA) in February 2020, 31 countries have pledged to join this like-minded organization and work to address the world’s challenges. Since the outbreak of the new Coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) pandemic, some countries have released people wrongly imprisoned for their faith and reunited them with their families, and we urge others to do the same.
A global religious freedom movement has become a reality, one that is multi-regional, multi-cultural, and multi-political, attesting to one universal and unequivocal truth: that everyone, everywhere in the world, has the right to believe or disbelieve, to change their beliefs, to speak out, to assemble, and to preach. On International Religious Freedom Day, the United States is proud to promote and protect religious freedom.
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