US religious freedom commission urges ‘more aggressive’ sanctions
The Trump administration needs to step up its pressure on religious freedom violators, said leaders of a federal religious freedom commission on Monday. Existing sanctions being invoked by the U.S. against persecutors of religious minorities are “few in comparison” to the number of religious freedom abuses occurring worldwide.
While the administration is sanctioning human rights abusers, it is not applying the same level of pressure to persecutors of religious minorities around the world, wrote Gayle Manchin, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in a joint op-ed with USCIRF vice-chair Tony Perkins in the Washington Examiner.
“The imposition of a more aggressive targeted sanctions regime would go a long way in deterring religious freedom violators, bringing accountability to the perpetrators, and ultimately creating a world where all are free to practice their faith,” Manchin and Perkins wrote.
Sanctions can take the form of visa restrictions or a freeze on an individual’s assets in the U.S. markets. The administration already has statutory authority to sanction human rights abusers to punish them, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act.
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