Update (May 3): Washington Post maps the USCIRF's world's worst religious freedom violators. The visual look reveals that all but one of the USCIRF's Tier 1 and 2 violators are in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East.

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Update: Religion News points out that the 2013 USCIRF includes non-state violators for the first time.

Knox Thames, USCIRF director of policy and research, told RNS in an interview, "USCIRF added a special emphasis on non-state actors, as their violent actions are a growing threat to religious freedom."

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Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, and North Korea are among the world's worst violators of religious freedom, according to the annual U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report released today.

Although USCIRF does not rank countries in any particular order, this year's report recommends that 15 countries receive State Department designation as Tier 1 "countries of particular concern" (CPCs), where "governments ... have engaged in or tolerated 'particularly ...

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