President Trump Signs A New Executive Order Amid Growing COVID-19 Pressures on Religious Communities Globally

On June 2, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a new Executive Order on advancing international religious freedom, setting the vision on how to better respond to the challenges faced by religious communities internationally.

The Executive Order places a duty upon the U.S. Secretary of State to “develop a plan to prioritize international religious freedom in the planning and implementation of United States foreign policy and the foreign assistance programs of the Department of State and USAID” within the next 180 days. It further provides for a foreign assistance funding for international religious freedom, including at least $50 million per fiscal year for programs that advance international religious freedom. Such programs include those that aim to “anticipate, prevent, and respond to attacks against individuals and groups on the basis of their religion, including programs designed to help ensure that such groups can persevere as distinct communities; to promote accountability for the perpetrators of such attacks; to ensure equal rights and legal protections for individuals and groups regardless of belief; to improve the safety and security of houses of worship and public spaces for all faiths; and to protect and preserve the cultural heritages of religious communities.”

The Executive Order aims to integrate international religious Freedom into US diplomacy, including, by way of “encourag[ing] the host governments to make progress in eliminating violations of religious freedom” and “rais[ing] concerns about international religious freedom and cases that involve individuals imprisoned because of their religion.” Lastly, the Executive Order calls for the development of “recommendations to prioritize the appropriate use of economic tools to advance international religious freedom in countries of particular concern, countries on the Special Watch List, countries in which there are entities of particular concern, and any other countries that have engaged in or tolerated violations of religious freedom.” 

The Executive Order is a much-awaited response to the deteriorating situation of religious minorities in many parts of the world amid COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries should join efforts.

Across the pond, in the U.K., a group of politicians, religious leaders, academics, and NGOs have written to the U.K. Government calling upon it to yet respond to the issue. As they state “Persecution of religious minorities is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, religious minorities have long been subjected to acts of intimidation, discrimination, harassment, marginalization, and violence, with such acts varying in their severity and frequency. However, recent months have seen new trends developing that are closely related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The letter calls upon the U.K. Government to “create a special budget to assist religious minorities uniquely affected by COVID-19 [and] to engage in dialogues with governments of countries where COVID-19-related violations of freedom of religion or belief are occurring and seek their assurances that they will address these violations, including thorough investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators.”

Such actions are urgently needed to neutralize the COVID-19 related pressured from religious minorities that they have been experiencing over the recent months. However, more needs to be done to address the pre-existing challenges that religious minorities have been facing globally. COVID-19 has not caused the dire situation of religious minorities, it only exacerbated it.