The USCIRF Assesses Religious Freedom Conditions in Azerbaijan

For any within the secular community communities, rather, one of the central organizations is Humanists International in terms of religious freedom/non-religious freedom — interrelated ideas, one of its main productions is the Freedom of Thought Report previously headed by Bob Churchill who has gone on to other work now.

The USCIRF is the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Its Vice-Chairs, Gayle Manchin and Nadine Maenza, travelled to Baku and Quba, Azerbaijan, recently. The Freedom of Thought Report: Azerbaijan section points to “Family, community, society, religious courts and tribunals“ and “Freedom of expression advocacy of humanist values” as the areas for major concern.

They went from February 24 to 28. The USCIRF is described as follows:

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The broad-based coalition that advocated strongly for IRFA’s enactment sought to elevate the fundamental human right of religious freedom as a central component of U.S. foreign policy.

They utilize international standards in order to make recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. Formal, traditional religion is important to most of the world. Outside of mitigation of harms, who’s to deny freedom of belief and worship?