The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2021 Annual Report assesses religious freedom violations and progress during calendar year 2020 in 26 countries and makes independent recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress for U.S. policy.

USCIRF bases these recommendations on its statutory mandate and the standards in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international documents. USCIRF’s mandate and annual reports are different from, and complementary to, the mandate and annual reports of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom.

The key findings, recommendations and analyses in this report are based on research by USCIRF, including travel, hearings, meetings and briefings, and are approved by a majority vote of Commissioners, with each Commissioner, under the statute, having the option to include a statement with his or her own individual views. During the first two months of 2020, Commissioners and/or staff visited Azerbaijan, Laos, Malaysia, and Sudan to assess religious freedom conditions. For the rest of the year and in early 2021, USCIRF did not travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.