The State Department has released the blacklist of religious freedom violators established by the Bush administration. It is the same list as in 2006, and it’s questionable whether the new department really analyzed the current situation before releasing the names of eight countries. Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan are listed as “countries of particular concern.” The results of being listed can include sanctions. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom pushed the State Department to get the list published and claims that listing a country will help U.S. public diplomacy efforts to improve the human rights records of violators. I thought after eight years the rhetoric of blacklisting was shown to be ineffective. In either case, the fact that the State Department is still blacklisting exactly the same countries shows just how little policy has actually changed.
