A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote religious freedom generally think the U.S. Department of State and United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) are doing a good job promoting religious freedom. But they also offer ideas for improvement.
The GAO queried more than 130 groups active on international religious freedom. Of the 84 respondents, 3 out of 4 surveyed NGOs "said that the U.S. government had made at least some progress in promoting religious freedom overall" (though only 1 in 3 said there has been "moderate" progress or more). This includes efforts to engage "in dialogue with foreign governments to effect changes in policy (59 of 83 NGOs, or 71 percent) and [engage] in dialogue with NGOs and civil society groups regarding international religious freedom (65 of 84 NGOs, or 77 percent)."
In spite of the overall positive perception of the government's work, surveyed NGOs remain concerned that international religious freedom is not a high priority for U.S. foreign policy overall. The NGOs also raised some concerns, namely regarding a lack of objectivity in annual reports from both the State Department and USCIRF. However, this was a minority view: 16 of 70 (23 percent) rated the objectivity of the State Department's report as only fair or poor; similarly, 9 of 64 NGOs (16 percent) said the same about USCIRF's report.
Slightly more than half of respondents (52%) agreed that the countries listed in USCIRF's annual report "fully represent the worst offenders of religious freedom." Five percent disagree.
The GAO also found split opinion on the usefulness of the designation of religious freedom violators as "countries of particular concern" (CPC):
NGOs expressed somewhat mixed opinions about whether the Secretary of State's CPC designations helped or hindered their work. Of the 84 respondents to our survey, 38 NGOs (45 percent) said that the CPC designation helped their work, 26 NGOs (31 percent) said that it neither helped nor hindered, and 6 NGOs (7 percent) said that it hindered their work. The remaining 14 NGOs (17 percent) had no opinion.
Yesterday, CT looked at the other half of the GAO report that focused on existing tensions between the two federal religious freedom advocates.
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