China, Myanmar, North Korea, India, and Pakistan were listed among the worst offenders against religious freedom or belief last year, according to an annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The commission’s report, released on May 1, documented “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of the right to freedom of religion or belief across the world.
It recommended listing 17 nations as “countries of particular concerns (CPC)” — Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, India, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam, and Afghanistan, stating that governments in those countries engage in or tolerate violation of religious freedom or belief.
Cuba and Nicaragua have been added to the CPC list for the first time.
China has been listed in the CPC since the commission started publishing the report in 1998 due to various forms of religious persecution such as torture, forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and unjust convictions.
India has been added to the list for the first time since 2004.
“The national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national-level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims. Most notably, it enacted the Citizenship [Amendment] Act, which provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan already residing in India,” the report said.

South Asia faces the daunting task of eliminating child marriages as the region is home to nearly half of the world’s child brides, says a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
South Asian countries account for 290 million or 45 % of the total of 640 million child brides globally, according to the report released on May 1.
South Asia is followed by sub-Saharan Africa with 20 % child brides, East Asia and the Pacific at 15 %, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 9 %, the report said.
The report used data collected from women aged 20 to 24 years who were married before the age of 18.
UNICEF in its report stated that the current rate of decline in the practice of child marriage was insufficient to achieve the target of eliminating it by 2030.
“In fact, at the current rate, it will take another 300 years until child marriage is eliminated [globally],” the report said.
According to the report, the pace of decline must be at least 20 times to reach the sustainable development goals of child marriage eradication set by UNICEF.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) no 5.3 targets to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation.”
Among South Asian nations, India is a major contributor accounting for around one-third of the world’s child brides while leading the fight to eliminate the practice.