Tag: Antony Blinken

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A Republican US Senator has urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to hold a robust discussion with India on the issue of religious freedom of minorities. Senator James Lankford sent a letter to Blinken after the State Department in its annual release of Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List, and Entities of Particular Concern designations did not follow the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendations, specific to India, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.

In its report early this year, the USCIRF had urged the Department of State to designate India as a country of particular concern on religious freedom issues.

The Biden administration did not agree with the recommendations of the USCIRF. Lankford is asking for the State Department’s legally required explanation to Congress on its designations, a media release said.

“India was not formally designated despite overt and repeated severe violations of religious freedom. India is an important security partner for the United States and a key counter-weight against China in the Indo-Pacific region,” he wrote.

“In the context of that partnership, the United States must have a robust discussion about the deteriorating religious freedom conditions for religious minorities in India,” Lankford said.

The purpose of any designation is to shine a light on the most egregious religious freedom violators and promote continued engagement on the value of religious liberty at all levels of government, he said.

“Formally designating countries under the IRFA (International Religious Freedom Act) can be an effective diplomatic tool to encourage and secure changes in behavior. I welcome the Department’s explanation for why, in its view, a formal designation would not enhance our efforts to promote human rights in partner countries, such as India,” Lankford said.

In a statement, the Indian American Muslim Council commended Lankford for his letter to Blinken.

India has previously rejected the USCIRF’s observations, terming them as “biased and inaccurate”.

The Indian government has asserted that India has well-established democratic practices and robust institutions to safeguard the rights of all.

The government has emphasized that the Indian Constitution provides for adequate safeguards under various statutes for ensuring the protection of human rights.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): In a rare occurrence, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, June 2, called out India for rising instances of attacks on religious freedom. Minorities in India, said Blinken, were “under threat due to rising attacks on places of worship” while delivering remarks on the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom in Washington.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said minorities in India were under threat due to rising attacks on places of worship”

He was delivering remarks on the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom in Washington.

Blinken began by naming a clutch of countries — Morocco, Taiwan, Iraq and Timor Leste — that have made improvements in allowing religious freedom. Besides India, he said religious freedom was under stress in Vietnam and Nigeria also.

After Blinken’s remarks, US Ambassador for State International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussein also named India. He said in India, some officials were ignoring or supporting threats to religious freedom. Hussein had earned the ire of the Ministry of External Affairs in February when he had tweeted on the hijab controversy in Karnataka by stating that hijab ban in schools violated religious freedom and stigmatize and marginalized women.

Stating the Biden administration had done the right thing by naming India, Advocacy Director of Indian American Muslim Congress Ajit Sahi said, “We applaud Blinken for naming India, as violations there have gone beyond what is acceptable. We hope more and more members of US Congress and officials of US Government will speak up and call out escalating religious persecution of Muslims and Christians in India.”
(Source: TNS)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): A vibrant independent press is a cornerstone for any healthy democracy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, observing that the exercise of freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, is facing profound threats in the current time. Addressing a news conference at the Washington Foreign Press Centre on Tuesday, May 3, his first appearance at the center in more than two years, Blinken said that around the world, governments, as well as non-state actors like terrorist groups and criminal organizations, threaten, harass, imprison, and attack journalists every week.

“Governments are supplementing traditional forms of repression with new tactics aimed at undermining press freedom. More governments are taking steps to control access to information – and news in particular – on the internet, whether through shutdowns, slowdowns, or outright censorship,” he said. These restrictions make it harder for reporting from inside closed areas to get out, and news from the outside to get in, he rued.

Asserting that technology is being used not only to block journalists but to watch them, Blinken said from 2020 to 2021, (the mobile phones of) more than 30 reporters, editors and other media employees in El Salvador were hacked using the spyware Pegasus, according to an independent investigation. “Last year, the Biden administration placed the foreign company that produces Pegasus – the NSO Group – on the Entity List, forbidding it from receiving US exports, including technologies, and seriously affecting its operations,” he said.

Whether these attacks on journalists are made using old methods or new ones, the overwhelming majority of crimes against journalists worldwide are carried out with impunity. This sends a clear message to perpetrators that they can keep targeting the press without consequences, he asserted.

In an interaction with a group of foreign journalists, Blinken said the United States has a vital stake in promoting the right to freedom of expression, including a free press, at home and also around the world. The free flow of information, ideas and opinions, including dissenting ones, is essential to inclusive and tolerant societies, he said.

“A vibrant independent press is a cornerstone for any healthy democracy. At its core is the idea that information is a public good, crucial to everything we do, to every decision that we make.

“And often we trust the press with providing that information. It’s what helps citizens understand the events, the forces that are shaping their lives. It allows people to engage meaningfully in the political and civic spheres of their communities, their nations, and the world,” he added.

The top American diplomat further said a free press is one of the most effective tools for advancing human rights.

“Whether it’s documenting unjust working conditions, corrupt or failing public services, discrimination against women and marginalized groups, abuse of security forces, accurate reporting shines a bright light on the parts of our societies that need fixing, that need to be illuminated. That brings pressure to change, to form, as we say in the United States, a more perfect union,” Blinken said.