§6417 Prisoner Lists and Issue Briefs on Religious Freedom Concerns

Summary

Congress says executive branch officials should raise religious freedom issues and speak up for people’s rights whenever they meet foreign leaders. The Secretary of State must work with diplomats, regional experts, and human rights and religious groups to make and keep updated country-by-country issue briefs. Each brief must list people believed to be jailed, detained, or under house arrest for their religious activities or advocacy, and give short critiques of the country’s policies that limit religious freedom. The Secretary must use care about safety and benefit to the people named and must give these briefs to officials and Members of Congress before bilateral meetings at home or abroad. The Commission must, when it recommends a country or non-state group be labeled “of particular concern,” make public lists (online and in reports) of people who are jailed, detained, disappeared, under house arrest, tortured, or forced to renounce their faith, and include as much public information as possible. The Commission must also use appropriate discretion to protect the safety and families of those listed.