The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a critical new report exposing the nexus between torture and religious freedom violations: Religious Freedom and the Prohibition of Torture and Ill Treatment. This comprehensive factsheet reveals how governments around the world continue to breach international law by engaging in torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment to suppress religious freedom.

The report represents a significant step forward in understanding and combating the systematic use of torture as a weapon against religious believers, documenting patterns of abuse across multiple countries and providing a framework for enhanced victim protection and state accountability.

In promoting international religious freedom, the U.S. government is required to consider the connection between religious freedom violations and torture. Recognizing how torture and ill treatment can be used to violate religious freedom strengthens both the protection of this right and the right to be free from torture.

This recognition expands remedies available for victims and increases state accountability for violations. By documenting this intersection, USCIRF provides policymakers with essential tools to address these interrelated human rights abuses more effectively.

The factsheet includes detailed case studies highlighting the intersection of torture and religious persecution from countries across multiple regions, providing concrete evidence of systematic abuse:

By documenting and analyzing the systematic use of torture to violate religious freedom, this report serves multiple crucial purposes. It provides evidence for advocacy efforts, informs U.S. foreign policy decisions, supports victims in seeking justice, and holds perpetrator states accountable for their violations of international law.

The expanded understanding of how these two forms of abuse intersect enables more comprehensive protection mechanisms and stronger international responses to religious persecution. This integrated approach recognizes that torture used against religious believers constitutes both a violation of the prohibition against torture and a violation of religious freedom—requiring coordinated international action on both fronts.