The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended for the first time in its annual report for the current year that the United States government include Kyrgyzstan in the "Special Watch List". This recommendation comes as part of the commission's efforts to address violations of religious freedom worldwide.
In its report published on May 1st, the commission highlighted violations of religious freedom across the globe. For the first time, all five Central Asian countries were mentioned in the report for various infringements on religious freedoms.
The USCIRF, an independent bipartisan federal body, monitors the status of religious freedom abroad to provide policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and the U.S. Congress.
In the 2024 report, Kyrgyzstan is mentioned for the first time, with USCIRF recommending its inclusion in the "Special Watch List" alongside Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Other countries recommended for inclusion in this list include Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Turkey.
The recommendation to include Kyrgyzstan in the "Special Watch List" is based on the increased religious repression by the country's government in the past year. The commission noted that authorities in Kyrgyzstan have increasingly enforced existing restrictive legislation regulating religion.
The Kyrgyz Republic has been targeting Muslims who practice forms of Islam deviating from the state's preferred interpretation, as well as non-Muslims including Catholics, Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Hare Krishnas. The government has labeled their peaceful religious activities as "extremist", "alien", or "non-traditional".
Throughout the year, authorities in Kyrgyzstan maintained a list of "extremist" groups, which included peaceful religious organizations, and detained alleged members under the pretext of combating "extremism", a concept vaguely defined in Kyrgyz legislation.
Authorities conducted mass inspections of religious institutions, imposing fines, suspending activities, and closing hundreds of mosques and madrasas across the country.
Among other issues highlighted by the commission regarding religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan is a parliament member's proposal to ban face-covering clothing and long beards, as well as statements by the Chairman of the State Committee for National Security, Kamchybek Tashiev, regarding religious practices differing from the traditional Islam followed by ancestors.
The commission also pointed out that the State Commission for Religious Affairs of Kyrgyzstan introduced a new draft law on religion that further restricts and securitizes peaceful religious practices.
In its report, the commission recommends that the U.S. government raise concerns about religious freedom with the Kyrgyz government, work with the authorities of the republic to review the 2008 Law on Religion and other legislative acts in line with international human rights standards, and strongly urge the government to seek advisory opinions on the draft law on religion from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
