美国国务院
发言人办公室
华盛顿特区
2022年6月2日
本杰明·富兰克林厅（Benjamin Franklin Room）
布林肯国务卿：各位早上好。今天，国务院发布2021年《国际宗教自由报告》（International Religious Freedom Report）。这份报告全面地、基于事实地审视了全世界近200个国家和地区的宗教自由状况。我们自1998年以来每年发布这份报告，是在时任国务卿奥尔布赖特的领导下开始的，她的生平和业绩继续为我们所弘扬。
在那个时候，主导起草这份报告的年度进程的国际宗教自由办公室（Office of International Religious Freedom）是全世界唯一一个承担着监督及捍卫国际宗教自由的职责的政府机构。今天，在20多年以后，已有超过35个政府和多边组织设立了专门致力于这个目标的办公室。
我要感谢该办公室今年在拉沙德‧侯赛因（Rashad Hussain）大使的领导下再次付出努力。这个团队工作卓著，我非常赞赏这些努力。
我还要感谢世界各地的数百名国务院官员，他们收集信息及调查事实的工作实际上正是这份报告的核心所在。而且我们所有人——我们所有人——都要感谢公民社会、信仰领袖、宗教组织、人权团体、新闻工作者以及其他人士，他们分享他们的观点和分析，并且每天都在全世界每个地区从事着提倡宗教自由的至关重要的工作。
奥尔布赖特国务卿在首次介绍这份报告时指出，从我们最早期开始，美国人一直相信，我引用她的原话：“当公民享有选择、宣告及行使他们的宗教身份的自由时，国家就会更强大，其人民的生活也会更富足”。
的确如此，宗教自由是神圣地载入我国宪法《权利法案》（Bill of Rights）的第一项自由。它作为一项人权得到全世界各国的承认，包括在《世界人权宣言》（Universal Declaration of Human Rights）之中。
尊重宗教自由不仅是最深入人心的价值观之一以及一项根本权利。在我看来，它还是一项至关重要的对外政策优先事项。原因在于：我们知道当每个人践行他们的信仰或选择不遵从一种信仰的根本权利得到尊重时，人们就能为他们的社区的成功做出自己最全面的贡献；整个社会都会变得更好。
而在另一方面，当有关政府剥夺这项权利时，它也造成了紧张、散播了分歧，并往往导致不稳定和冲突。
今年的报告涵盖了几个国家，我们在那里看到了值得注意的进展，这要归功于有关政府、公民社会组织和公民们的努力。例如，摩洛哥王国于去年启动了行动计划，修缮犹太会堂和陵园等犹太教传统场所，并将犹太教历史纳入摩洛哥公立学校教纲。
在台湾，有关当局正在提供便利，以举报那些拒绝给员工每周一天休息日去参加宗教活动的雇主。
在东帝汶，新总统拉莫斯-奥尔塔（Ramos-Horta）最近承诺维护全体公民的权利，不论他们有何种宗教背景。
在伊拉克，国家领导人欢迎教皇方济各（Pope Francis）对该国进行有史以来的首次教宗访问，他在巴格达、摩苏尔以及伊拉克库尔德地区都举行了基督教和跨信仰仪式。
纳西里耶（Nasiriyah）市的一位地方领导人谢赫海德尔·杜拜依斯（Sheikh Haider al-Dubaisi）后来在谈到教皇的这次访问时说，我引用他的原话：“尽管他行走困难，依然前来访问。他不仅向伊拉克人，而且向整个世界传递了一个信息：伊斯兰教和其他宗教可以和平共处”。
和平共处。归根结底，这份报告旨在向全世界更多的地区传播这种进步。
遗憾的是，报告也显示我们仍有更多工作要做。在世界许多地方，政府未能尊重本国公民的基本权利。有些政府继续使用不得诽谤宗教和弃教的亵渎罪和叛教罪法，并管制宗教少数派群体的语言。还有些政府限制表达宗教信仰的方式，如宗教服饰。
所有社会，包括我们自己和欧洲各国，必须加大努力打击日益抬头的仇恨形式，包括反犹太主义和反穆斯林情绪。
举几个例子。3月，基于对有关证据的仔细法律评审，我确定缅甸军方在2017年犯下了种族灭绝和反人类罪，旨在消灭以穆斯林为主的罗兴亚人——对这种意图的证据包括但不限于：袭击清真寺，使用具有宗教和民族诋毁性的语言，亵渎古兰经，以及其他许多行径。
在厄立特里亚，只有四个宗教群体可以自由践行他们的信仰，其他宗教少数派群体的成员遭到拘留，逮捕，并以被迫放弃信仰作为他们获释的先决条件。
在沙特阿拉伯，我们看到了最近对扩大跨信仰对话和宗教宽容采取的重要举措。但是，公开践行除伊斯兰教以外的任何信仰仍然属于非法，并且政府继续歧视宗教少数派群体的成员。
中国继续对以穆斯林为主的维吾尔族和其他宗教少数群体成员施行种族灭绝和压制。2017年4月以来，100多万维吾尔族人、哈萨克族人、吉尔吉斯族人以及其他少数民族成员在新疆被关入拘留营。中华人民共和国继续骚扰奉行被视为与中国共产党学说不符的其他宗教的人士，包括摧毁佛教、基督教、伊斯兰教和道教的敬拜场所，并且在就业和住房方面对基督徒、穆斯林、藏传佛教徒和法轮功学员设置障碍。
在阿富汗，宗教自由状况在塔利班统治下大幅度恶化，尤其是他们往往打着宗教旗号，对妇女和女童的受教育、工作和参与社会的基本权利严加限制。与此同时，伊斯兰国呼罗珊（ISIS-K）正在对宗教少数派群体，尤其是什叶派哈扎拉人（Shia Hazaras），发起越来越暴力性的攻击。
在巴基斯坦，至少有16名被控亵渎罪的人在2021年被巴基斯坦法庭判处死刑，不过尚未对其中任何人执行死刑。
除了上述这些国家外，报告也记述了宗教自由和宗教少数群体的权利在全球各地社区受到的威胁。
例如，我们看到，在世界最大的民主国家和有着非常多元信仰的印度，对信教者和祷告场所的攻击增多；在越南，当局骚扰未注册的宗教群体的成员；在尼日利亚，数个州政府使用反诽谤和亵渎法惩罚表达自己信仰的人。
美国将继续在全球各地支持宗教自由。我们将继续与其他国家政府、多边组织以及公民社会一道为此而努力，包括下个月在英国举行的促进宗教自由部长级会议（Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom）上。
我们努力的核心在于，确保所有人都能自由地追求对自己在地球上的有生之年有意义的精神宿求。它为的是让人们有机会自由地表达自己，这是做最完整的自己的含义之一。那将是进步。那将是这份报告所希望促成的进步。
因此，我要再次感谢所有为完成这份报告而辛勤工作的人。现在，让我请也许是最辛勤工作的一位人士侯赛因大使，介绍今年报告的几个主题。拉沙德，请。（掌声）
 
欲查看原稿内容: https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-ambassador-at-large-for-international-religious-freedom-rashad-hussain-on-the-2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/
本译文仅供参考，只有英文原稿才可以被视为权威资料来源。

Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain on the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom

REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
AMBASSADOR AT LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RASHAD HUSSAIN
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ROOM
WASHINGTON, D.C.
JUNE 2, 2022
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good morning, everyone. Today, the State Department is releasing the 2021 International Religious Freedom Report. This report offers a thorough, fact-based review of the state of religious freedom in nearly 200 countries and territories around the world. We produce this document every year since 1998, starting under the leadership of then Secretary Albright, whose life and legacy we continue to celebrate.
Back then, the Office of International Religious Freedom, which leads this annual process of drafting the report, was the only government entity in the world charged with monitoring and defending international religious freedom. Now, more than two decades later, we have more than 35 governments and multilateral organizations that have created offices that are dedicated to this goal.
And I’d like to thank the office for its efforts again this year under the leadership of Ambassador Rashad Hussain. This team has done remarkable work, and I very much appreciate the efforts.
I also want to thank the hundreds of State Department officials around the world who gather information, conduct the fact-finding that’s actually at the heart of this report. And all of us – all of us – are indebted to civil society, faith leaders, religious organizations, human rights groups, journalists, and others who share their perspectives and analysis, and who do the critical work of promoting religious freedom every day in every part of the world.
When Secretary Albright first introduced this report, she noted that from our earliest days, Americans had believed, and I quote, “that nations are stronger, and the lives of their people richer, when citizens have the freedom to choose, proclaim, and exercise their religious identity.”
Indeed, religious freedom is the first freedom enshrined in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. It’s been recognized by nations around the world as a human right, including in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Respect for religious freedom isn’t only one of the deepest held values and a fundamental right. It’s also, from my perspective, a vital foreign policy priority. Here’s why. We know that when the fundamental right of each person to practice their faith or to choose not to observe a faith is respected, people can make their fullest contributions to their community’s successes; entire societies are better off.
On the other hand, when governments deny this right, it ignites tension, it sows division, it often leads to instability and conflict.
This year’s report includes several countries where we see notable progress, thanks to the work of governments, civil society organizations, and citizens. For example, last year the Kingdom of Morocco launched an initiative to renovate Jewish heritage sites like synagogues and cemeteries, and to include Jewish history in the Moroccan public school curriculum.
In Taiwan, authorities are making it easier to report employers who refuse to give their workers a weekly rest day in order to attend religious services.
In Timor-Leste, the new president, Ramos-Horta, recently pledged to defend the rights of all citizens regardless of religious background.
And in Iraq, national leaders welcomed Pope Francis for the first ever papal visit to the country, where he conducted Christian and interfaith ceremonies in Baghdad, in Mosul, and in the Iraqi Kurdish region.
One local leader from the city of Nasiriyah, Sheikh Haider al-Dubaisi, later reflected on the Pope’s visit, and he said, and I quote, “He came even though he could barely walk. He sent a message not only to Iraqis, but to the whole world, that Islam and other religions can sit together peacefully.”
Sitting together peacefully. Ultimately, this report is about spreading that kind of progress to more parts of the world.
Unfortunately, the report also shows that we have more work to do. In many parts of the world, governments are failing to respect their citizens’ basic rights. Some governments continue to use blasphemy and apostacy laws, which banned defamation and renunciation of religion, to police the language of religious minorities. Others curtail expressions of religious belief like restrictions on religious attire.
And all societies, including our own and across Europe, must do more to combat rising forms of hate, including anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment.
To highlight a few examples, in March, based on extensive legal review of the evidence, I made the determination that Burma’s military committed genocide and crimes against humanity with the intent to destroy predominantly Muslim Rohingya in 2017 – intent that was evidenced by, among other things, attacks on mosques, the use of religious and ethnic slurs, the desecration of Korans, among, again, many other actions.
In Eritrea, only four religious groups are permitted to practice their faith freely, while members of other religious minority groups have been detained, arrested, forced to renounce their faith as a precondition for their release.
In Saudi Arabia, we recognize the important recent moves to increase interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance. However, publicly practicing any faith other than Islam remains illegal, and the government continues to discriminate against members of religious minority communities.
China continues its genocide and repression of predominately Muslim Uyghurs and other religious minority groups. Since April 2017, more than 1 million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and others have been detained in internment camps in Xinjiang. The PRC continues to harass adherents of other religions that it deems out of line with Chinese Community Party doctrine, including by destroying Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Taoist houses of worship and by erecting barriers to employment and housing for Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners.
In Afghanistan, conditions for religious freedom have deteriorated dramatically under the Taliban, particularly as they crack down on the basic rights of women and girls to get an education, to work, to engage in society, often under the banner of religion. Meanwhile, ISIS-K is conducting increasingly violent attacks against religious minorities, particularly Shia Hazaras.
In Pakistan, at least 16 individuals accused of blasphemy were sentenced to death by Pakistani courts in 2021, though none of these sentences has yet to be carried out.
Beyond these countries, the report documents how religious freedom and the rights of religious minorities are under threat in communities around the world.
For example, in India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we’ve seen rising attacks on people and places of worship; in Vietnam, where authorities harass members of unregistered religious communities; in Nigeria, where several state governments are using antidefamation and blasphemy laws to punish people for expressing their beliefs.
The United States will continue to stand up for religious freedom around the world. We’ll keep working alongside other governments, multilateral organizations, civil society to do so, including next month at the United Kingdom’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.
At its core, our work is about ensuring that all people have the freedom to pursue the spiritual tradition that most adds meaning to their time on Earth. It’s about giving people the chance to express themselves freely, which is part of being their fullest selves. That’s the progress. That’s the progress that this report hopes to help create.
So once again, I’d like to thank everybody whose hard work made this report possible. And with that, I want to turn the floor over to the person who’s maybe worked the hardest, Ambassador Hussain, to highlight a few themes from this year’s report. Rashad, over to you. (Applause.)
AMBASSADOR HUSSAIN: Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary. I’d like to thank President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary Blinken for leading United States global efforts to defend and advance human rights, including international religious freedom for all people everywhere. And I’m grateful to our colleagues in governments and to thousands of civil society partners in the United States and around the globe, partners from all political and faith backgrounds, who were instrumental in developing the report.
Religious freedom is a critical part of the American story. Our nation was founded centuries around by individuals fleeing religious persecution. It is natural then that freedom of religion was enshrined in America’s founding documents, including in the First Amendment to our Constitution in our Bill of Rights. Freedom of religion is also a universal right enshrined in several international instruments and covenants, including in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Earlier today, we transmitted this year’s 2000-plus page Report on International Religious Freedom to Congress. And I’d like to thank Bob Boehme, his editing team, and our colleagues at embassies and posts around the world for their tireless work in collecting the information that’s in this year’s report.
The report gives voice to countless individuals around the world who have been killed, beaten, threatened, harassed, or jailed for seeking to exercise their beliefs in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. The United States will continue to stand for those who are oppressed all over the world.
On the pages of this year’s report are stories of individuals who have endured unspeakable persecution, governments that have sought to restrict religious belief, practice, and expression for people across a wide range of belief traditions. Non-state actors have targeted religious groups, attacked places of worship, and vilified religious, ethnic, and racial groups in their hateful narratives, including on social media platforms. From Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia; Jews in Europe; Baha’is in Iran; Christians in North Korea, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia; Muslims in Burma and China; Catholics in Nicaragua; and atheists and humanists around the world, no community has been immune from these abuses.
I’d like to lay out three key themes in the report.
First, too many governments use discriminatory laws and policies and abuse their own people. We have seen two genocides of religious minority communities in recent years – in China and in Burma.
Second, rising societal intolerance and hatred are fueling violence and conflict around the world. Governments must not sit silent or stand idly by in the face of such oppression.
Third, powerful collaboration among civil society, governments, and multilateral partners has led to some progress and provides hope in addressing these complex challenges.
To provide concrete examples of how these themes are playing out around the world: first, far too many governments remain undeterred in the repression of their citizens. It comes as no surprise that the People’s Republic of China is a glaring example here. The PRC Government continue to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs who are predominantly Muslim and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups. The PRC uses sophisticated emerging technologies such as AI and facial recognition to surveil and maintain control of its open-air prison in Xinjiang. Behind all the evidence and data, the many reports of deaths in custody, torture, and physical abuse, there are thousands of Uyghur family members – daughters and sons are desperate to know where their parents are, but are terrified of what news they could discover and are wondering whether they will ever be safely reunited.
The PRC Government also continued its crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists. Authorities arrested, tortured, and committed other abuses against Tibetans who promoted their language and culture, possessed pictures and writings of the Dalai Lama, or practiced their religion at Buddhist monasteries. Secretary Blinken recently determined that the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya. Throughout Burma, already vulnerable communities, including civil society leaders and members of religious and ethnic minority groups, continue to face heightened risk of atrocities and other abuses.
Following its designation as a Country of Particular Concern for the first time last year, Russia has doubled down on its violations of religious freedom rather than reverse course. Russian courts regularly reach new milestones for excessive prison sentences against individuals exercising their religious freedom, and Russian authorities carry out hundreds of home raids against suspected extremists that frequently include violence. President Putin sought to justify the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine through the blatantly false pretext of de-Nazification. The world clearly sees through this lie and is instead witnessing Russia’s brutal suppression, including suppression of religious leaders and the appalling destruction of religious sites.
Religious Freedom conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated since the Taliban seized control. The Taliban regime and rival militant group ISIS-K have detained, intimidated, threatened, and attacked members of religious minority communities. And as the Secretary stated, in India some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship.
To elaborate further on the report’s second theme, there are a number of ways that rising societal intolerance and hatred are fueling violence and conflict around the world. Governments must speak out and protect the vulnerable and marginalized. Anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred, and xenophobia are on the rise in many countries. Democratic backsliding and the rise of nationalism and nativist rhetoric and policies have been used to justify violence towards members of ethnic or religious minority groups and historically marginalized peoples. Social media platforms are used to spread hate speech and to incite violence by vilifying and threatening members of religious minorities.
And finally, I’d like to say a little bit more about the report’s third theme, how collaboration between civil society and government has created some progress. While this report paints a challenging picture of the state of religious freedom around the world, we remain hopeful about the future. Civil society groups and countries all over the world are essential to this report and to our work. Their advocacy changes laws, it lifts up the names of prisoners, provides lawyers to fight against spurious charges, and pushes governments including our own to do the right thing. I’ve had the opportunity to work with civil society on powerful initiatives, such as the Marrakesh Declaration, which affirms the rights of Christians and other religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries, and the Istanbul Process, which rejects criminalization of blasphemy.
Independent and strong civil societies help governments solve problems and better serve their people by shining a light on the issues that matter most. Where civil society thrives, governments operate with more transparency and accountability, creating a tangible impact on the lives of everyday citizens. We must listen to and empower the voices of civil society, including those who dissent from majority views or criticize the government, as we work towards a more just and peaceful future for us all. Change is only possible with the hard work of the groups and individuals dedicated to fighting for these rights. Today, more than ever, we have tools at our disposal to facilitate the flow of information to keep individuals informed. We have mechanisms to shed light on abuses taking place, and we have the means to hold bad actors accountable.
We have more partners in this effort now than ever before, including religious leaders. And religion can be such a powerful force for good, and it should never be used to harm people. Our greatest hope is that together we can unite our efforts to ensure respect for freedom of religion or belief for all people around the globe, and we continue to stand in solidarity with all people seeking to exercise their beliefs.
Thank you. (Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you all. Appreciate the good work. (Applause.)