By John Lavenburg, Catholic Herald/Crux.
A member of the US federal commission that monitors religious freedom worldwide has expressed hope that the Trump administration will prioritise the issue, especially as the overall situation continues to deteriorate around the world.
“Our new Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] was a champion of international religious freedom when he was in the senate, so I imagine when the dust settles at the State Department…this will be a priority for him and that’s encouraging,” Maureen Ferguson, a commissioner with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, told Crux on March 25.
Ferguson later added that “there does seem to be a recognition” of the importance of religious freedom from the Trump administration so far, noting also recent comments made by Vice President JD Vance that the administration will prioritise the issue.
USCIRF is an independent and bipartisan government body. Ferguson made the comments ahead of the publication of the commission’s 2025 report on global religious freedom, which assesses the religious freedom policy of the Biden administration and global trends and developments in 2024, as well as recommending countries for the State Department to designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) because of their engagement in, or toleration of “particularly severe” religious freedom violations.
The 2025 report notes that the Biden administration did not issue new Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List (SWL) or Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) designations in 2024, which is a violation of the International Religious Freedom Act.