Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 15:37 pm

Governments around the world continue to violate religious freedom and breach international law by engaging in torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, according to a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In an October USCIRF fact sheet, “ Religious Freedom and the Prohibition of Torture and Ill Treatment ,” the commission highlighted incidents of torture in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam, and recommended the United States designate each of them as countries of particular concern (CPCs) as they “engage in or tolerate ‘particularly severe violations’ of religious freedom.”

These designations are based on information from the

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