§6442a — Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse | U.S. Code

Summary

The President must, during the yearly country review, find any non-government groups in that country or nearby that commit very serious attacks on religious freedom. The President must officially label those groups as especially harmful, send Congress a report explaining why as soon as possible, and have the Secretary of State include the reasons in the Department’s annual report. When it is possible, the President should take specific steps to respond. The President should try to identify the leaders or members who are responsible so actions can be targeted, and any response should include high-level diplomacy with the government where the group operates. Governments should still be held responsible for abuses in their territory. Congress urges the Secretary of State to work with Congress and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to create new political, financial, and diplomatic tools and to update the actions the President can use. Definitions: “appropriate congressional committees” — the relevant committees in Congress; “non-state actor” — a group that is not a government; “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” — very serious attacks on religious freedom.

Title 22, §6442a

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The President, concurrent with the annual foreign country review required under section 402(b)(1)(A) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)), shall—

(1)review and identify any non-state actors operating in any such reviewed country or surrounding region that have engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom; and

(2)designate, in a manner consistent with such Act [22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.], each such non-state actor as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom.

(b)Whenever the President designates a non-state actor under subsection (a) as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom, the President, as soon as practicable after the designation is made, shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees that describes the reasons for such designation.

(c)The President should take specific actions, when practicable, to address severe violations of religious freedom of non-state actors that are designated under subsection (a)(2).

(d)The Secretary of State should include information detailing the reasons the President designated a non-state actor as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom under subsection (a) in the Annual Report required under section 102(b)(1) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6412(b)(1)).

(e)It is the sense of Congress that—

(1)the Secretary of State should work with Congress and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom—

(A)to create new political, financial, and diplomatic tools to address severe violations of religious freedom by non-state actors; and

(B)to update the actions the President can take under section 405 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6445);

(2)governments must ultimately be held accountable for the abuses that occur in their territories; and

(3)any actions the President takes after designating a non-state actor as an entity of particular concern should also involve high-level diplomacy with the government of the country in which the non-state actor is operating.

(f)In order to appropriately target Presidential actions under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.), the President, with respect to each non-state actor designated as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom under subsection (a), shall seek to determine, to the extent practicable, the specific officials or members that are responsible for the particularly severe violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by such non-state actor.

(g)In this section, the terms “appropriate congressional committees”, “non-state actor”, and “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” have the meanings given such terms in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6402), as amended by section 3 of this Act.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, referred to in subsecs. (a)(2) and (f), is Pub. L. 105–292, Oct. 27, 1998, 112 Stat. 2787, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 6401 of this title and Tables. section 3 of this Act, referred to in subsec. (g), means section 3 of Pub. L. 114–281, which amended section 6402 of this title. Codification Section was enacted as part of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, and not as part of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 which comprises this chapter.

Executive Documents

Delegation of Responsibilities Under the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 Memorandum of President of the United States, Jan. 9, 2018, 83 F.R. 3935, provided: Memorandum for the Secretary of State By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the functions and authorities vested in the President by section 301 of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 114–281) (the “Act”) [22 U.S.C. 6442a]. This memorandum’s reference to the Act shall be deemed to be a reference to the Act as amended from time to time. You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register. Donald J. Trump.

§6442a Non-state actor designations