In light of the inhuman act which seriously abridges a universal right to religious freedom and human dignity, the New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs (NYCFPA), one of the most influential independent think tanks that undertake rigorous analysis of the U.S foreign policy, unequivocally condemns the recently occurred event.
Considering the severity of this breach, NYCFPA urges the governments, international institutions, and multilateral organizations, such as the United States Department of State, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), to actively intervene and cooperate in action by bringing the culprits to justice and by putting in place strong measures that would help to deter similar episodes.
The right of religious freedom as provided in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a right that is at more risk in 2025. This new development indicates a larger trend of increased religious persecution that has been noted in other parts of the world in the 2025 USCIRF Annual Report where targeted violence, forced displacement and systematic discrimination is on the rise. Not only do such acts bring about serious consequences in human sufferings, but it also destabilizes societies and undermines democracy.
NYCFPA underlines a strategic need to remind religious freedom as one of the fundamental foreign policy tenets of the U.S. The United States administrations that have come after the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 have developed systems of tracking and protecting this right in different parts of the world. Nevertheless, recent bureaucratic changes to the U.S. Department of State threaten to water down committed-to diplomacy in a world sorely in need of principled leadership. We urge policy-makers to strengthen and fund these activities so that they can be resilient, autonomous and successful.
The question of such inhuman activities must be approached in a complex way: to extend sanctions against perpetrators, add diplomatic pressure against them, humanitarian aid to the affected population, and alliance-forming activities on the international level to create a tolerant environment and defend vulnerable groups. NYCFPA promotes an increased monitoring, open reporting, expedited courts of law through international law and multilateral collaboration too.
In declaring the prohibition of this new blow against human dignity and religious liberty an intolerable imposition on us, NYCFPA renews its determination to continue to manifest an ubermallet evangelische foreign policy based on principals and evidence towards the protection of liberty of religion or belief (FoRB). All government stakeholders must take firm actions, ensuring due responsibility, and sustaining the stability of rules-based international order, where all basic rights can be granted.
